Architects of rock, The Immediate Family, perform live and screen acclaimed documentary

Thomas Claxton’s Me, Myself, and Us Concert Series focuses on the unsung session musicians behind some of the greatest songs and albums in rock history.

“I’ve always had a passion and a deep understanding for the guys, who in my mind, are the ones who make the gears turn, the unspoken heroes,” said Claxton, a Savannah-based singer-songwriter. “When it comes to mainstream audiences, the average person on the street might not be aware of how exactly a song and album came together. These guys are the ones who pull it all together.”

Claxton, partnered with Georgia Southern University and the Gretsch School of Music, is presenting a double dose of music history with a performance by The Immediate Family on April 25, followed by a screening of an acclaimed documentary about the band, "Immediate Family", on April 26 with a Q&A with director Denny Tedesco and featuring a Masterclass with several members of the band.

The Immediate Family are considered “the sonic architects of the singer-songwriter era and beyond.” Danny Kortchmar, Waddy Watchel, Russ Kunkel, and Leland Sklar, along with Steve Postell, are legendary session musicians who, since the 1970s, have worked with a mindboggling list of artists including James Taylor, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Stevie Nicks, Keith Richards, Jimmy Buffet, Don Henley, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Warren Zevon, Phil Collins, and so many more.

Their music is so ubiquitous that it is almost impossible to turn on a radio or television, or go anywhere, without hearing a song that doesn’t have some of their fingerprints on it.

“Every time you hear a song you’re on when you go into a market, it makes you feel good,” said Kunkel over Zoom.

Kunkel and his band mates have been playing with each other in various configurations for decades, but The Immediate Family, formed in 2018, marked the first time the longtime friends came together to write and record their own music. You could almost call the industry legends a super group.

“We think of ourselves as SUPER, but not necessarily as a super group,” said Kortchmar. “I think we all knew we loved each other right away. We all got along like a house on fire. Of course, Russ and me had been together for years before that and we knew each other really well, but when Waddy came on…it’s impossible not to love Waddy. He’s lovable in the extreme and a wonderful musician.”

Waddy Wachtel is currently on tour with Stevie Nicks, so unfortunately, he won’t be appearing at the Thomas Claxton event. In his stead, special guest Elliot Easton of The Cars will join The Immediate Family on stage.

“Elliot Easton is a wonderful musician,” said Kortchmar. “I’ve always loved him from The Cars days because his lines on those records were really well thought out and perfect for the song. Of course, that’s what we’re about—playing stuff that is right for the song.”

Kunkel added, “We love him, and we get to play some Cars songs, which, that’s not hard work. That’s fun.”

Besides a few Cars songs, The Immediate Family will also play material off of their own albums—including their recent record, Skin in The Game—as well as many of the classic songs by iconic artists that they collaborated on.

Kortchmar describes The Immediate Family as “a cover band that plays all original material.”

“Everything we play, we wrote it, we produced it, played on it, toured it, recorded it, so everything we play we have a close connection to,” explained Kortchmar. “Most of it we co-wrote with some of our fabulous friends.”

The Immediate Family follow in the tradition of The Wrecking Crew, who were session musicians responsible for helping shape the sound of popular music in the 1960s and '70s. (Immediate Family director Denny Tedesco produced a documentary about them, as well.) The difference is, while the members of The Wrecking Crew remained mostly unknown to regular listeners, The Immediate Family gained broader recognition thanks to having their names credited on the backs of record covers.

“That came from our dear, dear, friend Peter Asher, and our other dear, dear pal, Lou Adler,” said Kortchmar. “We did Tapestry and Peter and Carol [King] decided to put all our names on the album cover. So, this album comes out and its huge, it goes crazy. Unlike the Wrecking Crew, our names were on there. Who were these cats that played on this monstrously hit record? It helped us tremendously.”

The Immediate Family were fortunate to come up in a music era that doesn’t really exist in the same way anymore.

“The session scene is totally different now,” said Kunkel “The amount of work there is for really good musicians that just came out of some school is slim to none. The only things out there are live performance gigs and if you’re fortunate enough to get in a band and get out and play live, you can do that, but most of the studios we worked with over the years closed and there are only a handful of the really good ones left. It’s changed drastically because a lot of people are making music in their bedroom on a computer. We were in the golden age of recording, for sure.”

The Immediate Family documentary currently has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Tedesco’s film follows a natural progression from his Wrecking Crew documentary and helps connect many dots for music fans and paint a detailed picture of their contribution to some of the best music of the '70s and '80s.

“I was most interested in how ‘civilians’ would react to the film,” said Kortchmar. “Our friends and people in the industry saw it and loved it and we knew that, but people who had no skin in the game at all came to see it and loved it. It’s just astonishing that this document exists and we’re very proud of it.”

Kunkel added, “Documentaries are kind of like lifting up a stone. They bring to light something that was not necessarily visible. Everybody in the world knows Phil Collins and James Taylor and Carol King, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, and all the people that participated in the documentary, but what Denny was able to do was show that, if they were the pearls, we were the string that connected all those things together. I think that is what was interesting to the civilians.”

With a new album and documentary, The Immediate Family continue to build upon their already rich legacy. Don’t miss seeing these living legends perform this week.

“I think there is a terrific story to be told in our film, and the album is indicative of what we can do and what we love to do,” said Kortchmar.

If You Go >>

What: The Immediate Family in concert

When: 7 p.m., April 25

Where: Fine Arts Auditorium, Armstrong Campus of Georgia Southern University, 11935 Abercorn St.

Cost: $75-110

Info: evenbrite.com

What: “Immediate Family” Documentary screening/Q&A

When: 7 p.m., April 26

Where: District Live, 400 W. River St.

Cost: $75

Info: eventbrite.com

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: The Immediate Family performs live and screens acclaimed documentary