3 Trails West is a Kansas City band built upon the Silver Screen tradition of Cowboy music. Riding upon the shoulders of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, the Sons of the Pioneers and Andy Parker, 3 Trails West has joined the contemporary ranks of such artists as Riders in the Sky, Rex Allen, Jr., Sons of the San Joaquin, Michael Martin Murphey and others to ride the wave of resurgent popularity of this purely American musical art form.
The group will be at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center at 2 p.m. Sunday. Single tickets cost $16, with lower amounts for students and balcony seating.
The band was first formed in the fall of 2006 by Roger and Leo Eilts. In the years since, 3 Trails West has established a respected profile in the Western Music industry. In 2016, the band was awarded the distinction of being Group of the Year by both the Western Music Association and the Academy of Western Artists. Their most recent release Silent Trails is currently number 12 of the Top 30 most popular Western Music albums and is enjoying broad rotation by DJs in the U.S. and Europe. The title song was a finalist for 2017 Song of the Year by the Academy of Western Artists.
The band is also heavily steeped in the very danceable style of Western Swing and is a host band for the Annual Swing Dance Spectacular at the Western Music Association Convention in Albuquerque, N.M.
Brothers Roger and Leo Eilts are sons of the Kansas soil, born and raised south of Hays in the Walnut Valley region of the state. The nearest place to buy records was the Gibsons store in Great Bend. Mining the dusty bins of the small music department, they accumulated the entire Sons of the Pioneers catalog as it existed at the time. The entire stack of vinyl LPs would be placed upon the turntable each night to play as they retired to bed, only to be flipped and played again the next night. In this subliminal fashion, these brothers absorbed the complex vocalizations that were and are the hallmark of this Western style of music. They were members of the Post Rock Saddle Club and even delivered the Great Bend Tribune on horseback.
Roger and Leo were taught harmony singing by their mother, who, coincidentally, was also their music teacher in grammar school. On rhythm guitar and bass, respectively, the Brothers Eilts comprise the perfect backup band. It has been said that they can harmonize to a pig; no disrespect to the pig.
Gentleman Jim Winters is an old friend of the Eilts Brothers who is also the most recent addition to 3TW. He was recruited to add his booming baritone to the group and typically sings the lead in the trio as well as bringing his considerable guitar skills to the band.
The Trail Hands Orchestra have their own secret club and speak a language the rest of the band doesnt really understand. A highly creative group, they are constantly ambushing the 3TW Vocal Trio with arrangements that leave them both breathless and laughing hysterically. Typically including fiddle, steel and accordion, the Trailhands provide the perfect instrumental vehicle upon which the Western Harmonies of 3 Trails West ride.
