Kirky Tg’s Story
Kirky TG is a Houston-based Blues singer, guitarist, and composer with an expressive voice and guitar style. Blending the traditional and modern, TG is about groove, tone, and feel.
Inspired by diverse blues genres, including urban electric, delta, and hill country, Kirky also has influences from jazz, grunge, classical, and hip-hop.
Playing from California to Texas over the last 15 years, TG has performed alongside Teddy Lee Hooker, Jeff Chaz, Richard Trace, and other talented Blues artists. He soaked up the Blues by watching and learning from inspiring musicians in and touring through Southern California. Jeff Chaz, an award-winning original stylist and mentor, once advised him, “When you play the Blues, don’t hold back!” — TG holds this directive dear.
30+ years of musical experience, including training, college education, and jazz studies, contributed to his approach. He started out on piano and voice as a child, studied harmony and composition, performed in choir, and picked up and studied guitar and Blues along the way. His earliest inspirations were soundtracks, classical music, and classic rock. As a late teen, he got turned on to Jazz, a big influence on his style. Later, he explored grunge, heavy metal, hip-hop, reggae, and other styles.
He discovered the Blues 20 years ago after finding the posthumously released live album, ‘In the Beginning,’ by Stevie Ray Vaughan. It’s still his favorite album today, alongside Magic Sam’s, ‘Live at the Avant Garde,’ B.B. King’s, ‘Live in Japan,’ Howlin’ Wolf’s, ‘Live at Alice’s Revisited,’ and numerous other live albums. A student of the art of live performance and recording, Kirky loves the raw, immersive, organic tone and the spontaneous vibe of live recordings. He’s working on the planned release of his first live album.
The direct, cathartic, and minimalist nature of the blues drew him to it. Blues is his favorite reading subject, and he has a substantial collection of in- and out-of-print biographies and sociological books on the genre.
Born in Santa Monica, California, Kirky grew up in Quartz Hill, CA. After high school, he briefly moved to San Diego and then San Bernardino, where he spent 15 years getting educated, starting a family, developing his businesses, and performing. He moved to San Diego in 2016, Austin in 2019, and Houston in 2022.
Kirky started his first Blues band in 2011 and performed for several years before putting it on hold to focus on family, school, and business. From 2017 onward, he contributed guitar and compositions to four electronic albums produced and composed by Zia Seren as ‘sinkindown.’ He became active as a performer again after moving to Austin.
In 2006, he got his associate’s degree in University Studies while also working toward an associate’s in Harmony and Composition. Kirky returned to school in 2009 after his children were born and earned a B.S. in Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship, an MBA, and a second bachelor’s in real estate.
He worked for 17 years as a courier, spending his days listening constructively to music between deliveries and while cruising the highway. During that time, he also had side hustles as a digital marketer and real estate agent-investor. After finishing school, he built a successful PR and marketing business which he owns and operates today.
Passionate about supporting the Blues community, he serves as President and Marketing Committee Chair of the Houston Blues Society. He previously contributed to the San Diego and Austin Blues Societies and was a founding member of the Inland Empire Music Society.
A guitar tech who assembles and wires custom guitars, Kirky loves to envision new builds and tinker with electronics. His primary guitar, ‘Discovery,’ is his latest natural-finish Warmoth strat build, with a bubinga neck and black korina chambered body, that incorporates the tone and playability preferences he’s developed in two-plus decades of experimentation. TG’s secondary guitar, ‘Voyager,’ is a custom orange sparkle strat with identical wiring but a different tonal character.
Kirky is an advocate of DEI, peace, sustainability, and a plant-based lifestyle.
Kirky’s inspirations include Albert King, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Magic Sam, Stevie Ray, T-Bone Walker, Kurt Cobain, Hubert Sumlin, Jimi Hendrix, Daft Punk, Jimmie Vaughan, B.B. King, Albert Collins, Dave Brubeck, Big Bill Broonzy, Willie Dixon, Gatemouth Brown, Lonnie Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Guitar Slim, Robert Johnson, Louis Jordan, Mississippi John Hurt, Little Walter, Johnny Burnette, Hop Wilson, Son House, Brownie McGee, Sonny Terry, Otis Rush, Bobby Bland, Freddie King, RL Burnside, Alan Haynes, Sue Foley, Tab Benoit, Bing Crosby, Sinatra, Chopin, and more.
Kirky is a user of Roland/BOSS, Warmoth, Seymour Duncan, and Elixir gear.
