Neil Young rocks, Panzer Talk listens

By John Benson

As a musician and songwriter, Kenneth A. Halbert III is an old-school guy. Want proof? When asked to describe the sound of his band, Panzer Talk, the Springfield native and Youngstown resident replied, “It’s 1972 2-inch-tape rock.”

While perhaps confusing to others, Halbert’s portrayal of his band’s music actually cuts right to the chase, conjuring up visions of warm vinyl sounds and a heavy ’70s rock influence.

“It’ll always be like Neil Young-influenced folk rock to me,” Halbert said.

“My favorite person in the world in 1988 was Neil Young, and that probably hasn’t changed really much. It sounds like Crazy Horse.”

Panzer Talk was originally formed five years ago when songwriter Halbert found himself with a handful of songs. Abhorring the notion of playing the material in a solo fashion at open-mic nights around the area, he enlisted his friends, and the band was official.

Though a self-titled EP came out in January 2008 on On/On Switch Records, the 1994 Springfield High School graduate decided a lineup change was in order, with the outfit now featuring Eric Tharp (bass, vocals), Ryan Yurchison (drums, vocals), Jon “The Ginger Ninja” Butterly (guitar, vocals) and Katherine Rose Joy (vocals).

“With the new lineup, our music probably went from Neil Young falling asleep to Neil Young awake,” Halbert said. “The first EP was partially acoustic. And this new stuff, there’s not really any of the singer-songwriter jazz as there was on the first record so much. We are five practices into the new (EP) and we’re supposed to record in January. We have a couple of songs. We’re basically playing to make a new half-hour set so we can start the process of rock over again.”

He added, “One of the songs is ‘Living With Beefcake,’ which has a lot of tempos. I was sitting in a bar watching an Average White Band DVD and I decided we should have a song like that. I don’t know what happened after that, but we decided we’d try to sound like Average White Band, and we failed.”

While Panzer Talk will be playing the new material at its Sunday show at Cedars, Halbert said the group won’t be playing any old material out of respect for its former members.

If Halbert sounds like an interesting cat, he is. Passionate about his music and dedicated to his vision for Panzer Talk, the musician answered honestly when asked who would enjoy the quintet’s live show.

“People who have a good record collection ranging from Steely Dan to Angel Witch,” Halbert said.

So will he be checking iPods for the aforementioned bands before allowing clubgoers entrance into Cedars?

“No, I wouldn’t know how to check it,” Halbert said. “I’m a little bit of an older guy.”