The Immediate Family is a unique group of iconic musicians who have played together for decades but never as their own band. Known for their long, illustrious careers backing up such Hall-of-Fame artists such as James Taylor, Keith Richards, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Stevie Nicks and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, guitarists Danny Kortchmar and Waddy Wachtel, drummer Russ Kunkel, and bassist Leland Sklar have come together, along with guitarist Steve Postell, to perform their own songs as The Immediate Family, a band that can legitimately be called a supergroup.
The Immediate Family’s new self-titled full-length album contains twelve original songs, including a rendition of the Waddy Wachtel/Warren Zevon cowrite “Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead.” The album’s two bonus tracks are live versions of Zevon’s “Johnny Strikes Up the Band” and the Danny Kortchmar/Jackson Browne collaboration “Somebody’s Baby.”
While technically a “new” band, the band members’ years of experience playing together create a quite unique, thoroughly invaluable group dynamic. They share a kind of mental connection, so there is no need for a lot of discussions. “When you play together for this long,” Kortchmar reveals, “things just fall into place very quickly and easily; we understand each other and understand what each other is going to do.” One important communicator, however, is the song itself. “Each song tells us what it needs,” Wachtel adds.
The high comfort level has made The Immediate Family a highly democratic collaboration. “Everyone is involved in the the production,” remarks Kortchmar. “That’s the way we do it. With guys like this, everyone is going to have an equal say.” Given this approach, and the fact that all five guys have producing experience, the group served as the album’s producers.
The Immediate Family has kept quite busy during the pandemic, releasing the two EPs Slippin and Slidin’ (which debuted at #6 on Billboard’s Blue Chart) and Can’t Stop Progress, each one including newer originals along with “covers” of well-known tunes (the Wachtel/Zevon cowrite “Werewolves of London,” the Kortchmar/Henley cowrite “New York Minute”, and the Kortchmar original “Machine Gun Kelly”). Eager to get back to playing live shows again, the band will be touring in the fall following the release of The Immediate Family.
“We are very proud of the people we’ve gotten to work with,” Kortchmar states, “but we’re also thrilled to be playing our own music.” Wachtel concurs: “For it to be the four of us – these brothers that I’ve had for all these years – digging it the way we do and for people liking it, is more than a dream come true. It’s too wonderful for words. I didn’t see this coming, and now I can’t imagine it having not happened.”
If it sounds like their careers would make a good movie, you’re not wrong. Danny Tedesco, the filmmaker behind the acclaimed The Wrecking Crew documentary, is currently hard at work on The Immediate Family documentary, expected to be released in 2022. The band also recently recorded new material at Henson Studios (formerly A&M Studios) in Los Angeles.