Chalmers Green goes from small town to big city, thanks to Gin Blossomsí Robin Wilson
By CHRIS HANSEN ORF
Get Out

When Joshua Kennedy drove from his hometown of Wheaton, Mo. — population 721 — to see the Valley band Gas Giants 45 minutes away in Springfield, Mo., in the late ’90s, the teenage musician hung around after the show hoping for a chance to talk to the band's frontman, ex-Gin Blossoms singer Robin Wilson.

“I was a huge Gin Blossoms fan ever since I saw them on TV when I was, like, 12,” says the 23-year-old guitarist of Tempe band Chalmers Green. “After the Gas Giants show, I saw Robin sitting in the van. ‘‘I went up and pulled the door open and introduced myself and he was like, ‘Aw, damn it.’ But we ended up hanging out and he was giving us advice on the music business.”

So what pearls of wisdom did Master impart to young Grasshopper?
“He told me to be a doctor,” Kennedy says, laughing. “Obviously, it didn't work.”

Kennedy knew that music was the path he wanted to take ever since he hopped up onstage in a Wheaton honky tonk with his father's country band when he was 12.

“My dad would let me come up and play a set with him, and I never really realized how cool that was back then,” Kennedy remembers. “I mean, if I was hanging around in a bar now and some 12-year-old was around, I'd be like, ‘Go home.’ ”

By the time the guitarist was in high school, he had formed his own band with vocalist Kevin Prier and his bassist brother Ryan.

“My mom used to babysit them,” Kennedy says. “We never really got along because they were the antisocial ones and I got along with everybody. But I went over to their place and Kevin was grounded. I didn't even get to talk to him, so I started jamming with Ryan on, like, ‘Slow Ride.’

“Then when Kevin started singing, he was really getting into the frontman thing,” says Kennedy, who provides the band's vocal harmonies. “That's the way it's been ever since.”

Wheaton was not exactly a hotbed for bands, so the rockers knew they had to head for the big city — any big city.

Kevin Prier left the group for Los Angeles in 1999, leaving Kennedy and Ryan Prier with decisions to make.

“I saw an ad in Rolling Stone for the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Science,” says Kennedy. “I saw that it was in Tempe, Arizona, and I remembered seeing that city all over the Gin Blossoms’ records, so we moved out here and I started taking classes.”

Kennedy and Ryan Prier discovered Robin Wilson was playing acoustic shows at Long Wong's in Tempe and started hanging around outside the fabled club.

“We were under 21 and we couldn't get in, so I waited until Robin came outside and talked to him,” says Kennedy, who told the Tempe legend he was in town to go to recording school. “A few weeks later, there were fliers from Robin all over the school looking for the kid from Missouri with the cool van.

“I thought it was my friends playing a joke on me,” Kennedy says. “I called the number, and I guess Robin had guys from all over calling him. He asked me a few questions to see if I was the right guy.”

Wilson, who owns and operates Mayberry Studios in Tempe, asked Kennedy to do an internship with him, and the young guitarist has been a fixture there ever since.

“Robin's been a great mentor, not just for me, but for all of us,” Kennedy says.

Vocalist Ryan Prier rejoined the band and with drummer Chico, the quartet — christened Chalmers Green after a name on a call list Kennedy saw when he dabbled in telemarketing — has been rocking Valley audiences with their live show and melodic hard rock.

“We're probably the only band in Tempe that can't be described as ‘jangly,’ ” Kennedy says.

When the group returns to their old stomping grounds in Wheaton, it's an experience they relish.

“When we go back it's really cool because we got out and we're doing something,” Kennedy says. “It's funny, all the popular guys in school are pumping gas at the gas station — not that that's a bad thing, but it's not my bag.”