by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Rich Williams said he got his first guitar when he was a sophomore in high school. “I was kind of a late starter, actually. I learned a few chords, then sat around with my friends making some noise,” he said. “It wasn’t too long before I was in my first band, and that was with Phil Ehart.” 

That was 1967, and for most of the years since high school, Ehart and Williams have been playing together as two members of the band Kansas. On Saturday, July 29  they’ll perform at the Balsam Valley Amphitheater in Columbia Falls.