Smitty: And those early days with Bob James…
KW: That’s right.
Smitty: Those were some beautiful times and the music reflects that, my friend.
KW: Yeah, thank you so much, man.
Smitty: Yeah, and you’ve got some great friends along the way on this record as well, so just covering all of that territory, I mean, you know, with Gerald Albright and remembering Grover. I mean, that’s a beautiful way to do a record, I think.
KW: It is and it’s a very personal thing. I’m alternating kind of on these records where one record I’ll do just totally for the listener. In other words, I put myself way behind, like if there’s a song that I feel like they might like that was originally sung by Lionel Richie or whomever—I never recorded any of his songs (both laugh)—but whoever, then I’ll put that on that record. That, for instance, was a record called For You. And then I’ll turn around and do a record that is more autobiographical, songs that I’ve written or had written for me, and so that was, for instance, Unconditional, Into My Soul. And then we go back and do The Babyface Songbook, which, again, is back to my versions of songs that other people have done. And then back to this record now, to Roundtrip, which is all about, once again, songs that I’ve either written or were written for me.
Smitty: Yeah, that title track. Talk a little bit about that because I think that is probably the most unique song, or one of them—I think they’re all unique—but I think that one’s very unique in that family’s here now, you know? This is a family thing.
KW: That’s right, that’s right. And funny too because that song, just speaking of the song, I sang that melody into my telephone, like just the little memo thing on my phone…
Smitty: Yeah.
KW: …while I was driving one day in Memphis. And Memphis is like that. I mean, there’s music in the air and you can just pull a song out of the air kinda, and I don’t want to make it sound too simple, but it’s absolutely in the air and on the Mississippi River and Stax Records and Sun Records and all of that. But when I did that song, when I wrote it, I said, “Man, this will be a great avenue to include my family.” I come from a musical family and literally all the way back to both my grandmothers. One was a gospel singer, the other taught piano and voice and led the choir, and I have an uncle who was the Dean of Music at Morehouse [College] until he passed away, Dr. Wendell P. Whalum, and lots of family members who play and sing, and so when I decided to do this particular thing, I said “I’m gonna make a Whalum fest, man.”
Smitty: Yeah, I like that.
KW: And my Uncle Peanuts was recording and touring finally, after being sequestered in the music scene of St. Louis for literally 60 years. He’s 79 years old, man, and he sounds incredible, and he even has his own CD on Rendezvous as well.
Smitty: Yeah, I know, that’s so cool.
KW: But he’s featured on this, I’ve got my brother Kevin, who sings with me a lot and who is indeed working on his own project right now with George Duke.
Smitty: Oh, that should be cool.
KW: And then I’ve got my son Kyle, who plays bass and arguably, because I’m his dad, is one of the finest bass players I’ve played with, and that has been seconded by a few people who’ve been taking him out, out of my reach, to Japan and London and all over, but he’s been touring with me, so he’s on there, and then my nephew is an amazing saxophonist who is touring with P. Diddy right now, but I stole him for a minute. He’s in school in New York studying and just sounding great, so this is kind of a launch pad for a couple of these guys.
Smitty: Yeah, man.
KW: And there’s more in the wings, man, so stay tuned.
Smitty: Oh, very cool. But Kirk, it’s not just that you just pulled in some family members. These guys are talented, man. These cats can play.
KW: Yeah, thank you, man, and that is absolutely a revelation that I had at one point, helped along by my friend Hyman Katz at Rendezvous Records, because I was, you know, I’m like, eh, that’s hokey. You don’t want to just “Okay, so I think my uncle’s great, I think my brother and my son’s great,” but I don’t want to push them off on people and whatever, and Hyman was like “Man, listen, if they’re good, they’re good. It doesn’t matter that they happen to be related to you.”
