STREETS

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Streets was a band made up of singer, keyboardist Steve Walsh, guitarist Mike Slamer, bassist Billy Greer, and drummer Tim Gehrt.

Steve Walsh had been in the band Kansas and Mike Slamer has been in several other bands, including Britain's City Boy. He was also a session guitarist. Greer and Gehrt were regional players who had seen success with bands in Tennessee and Atlanta, respectively.

Gehrt was working with ex-Deep Purple bassist Glenn Hughes when Walsh recruited him for Walsh's first solo effort, Schemer-Dreamer. Walsh had noticed him when one of Gehrt's earlier bands had opened for Kansas. The two became friends and eventually spoke of forming a band together.

Slamer had never met Walsh until he showed up for the audition. "I decided that I wanted to move to America," says Slamer. "The kind of music that I wanted to make wasn't being played at all in England, so I came here."

Streets made its debut performance at Charlie Daniels' annual Volunteer Jam in January, 1983. Streets 1st was released later that year on Atlantic Records. The band played on another band's equipment and only played four songs.

"We got out there and proved that we could play," said Walsh. "We proved to ourselves that we could pull it off and that we were on the right track. Starting over was very humbling. But we got a lot of good feedback on the album. We were playing live every night and being onstage was very renewing for us..."

"I wanted to form a democratic band," said Walsh. "I did not want to be a solo singer with a band of sidemen. I like being in a band... I couldn't have done that project alone. I needed the help of every musician involved. We were all of equal importance in the final creation of each song."

The band later recorded its second album, Crimes in Mind, in 1985. Soon after, Streets disbanded. A year later, Walsh reformed Kansas, which had disbanded after two albums without Walsh.  In 1997, the radio program, The King Biscuit Flower Hour released a live Streets album featuring a concert recorded on October 28, 1983 at Entertainment City, in Pittsburgh, PA. The album features Streets live on their first tour, which was in support of the debut album on Atlantic Records. While the band featured the familiar voice of then ex-Kansas lead singer Steve Walsh, who recorded five Top 40 hits with Kansas up to that point, Streets stuck with original tunes even in a live setting.