Trigger Hippy is returning to the Alhambra

The band co-founded by drummer Steve Gorman will play at the downtown theater on Sept. 18.

Trigger Hippy, the Nashville-based band backed by drummer Steve Gorman, is returning to the Alhambra Theatre on Saturday Sept. 18. Tickets are being sold online, the Pennyroyal Arts Council announced. 

steve gorman
Steve Gorman talks to the audience as he and Trigger Hippy finished a concert at the Alhambra Theatre on Feb. 28, 2020.
(Photo by Jennifer P. Brown)

Gorman, who grew up in Hopkinsville and graduated from University Heights Academy in 1983, was a founding member of the Black Crowes, one of the most acclaimed bands in rock ’n roll music. 

Trigger Hippy last played at the Alhambra to a packed house on Feb. 28, 2020. It was Gorman’s first performance before a hometown audience, and the last concert at the Alhambra before the coronavirus pandemic closed the downtown theater to live music for several months. 

“The band loved our venue,” arts council executive director Margaret Prim said in a news release. “It holds so much soul and … memories for Steve Gorman and his family. We thought it would be meaningful to reopen our 2021-2022 season with Trigger Hippy.”

Along with Gorman, the members of Trigger Hippy are songwriter and bassist Nick Govrik, singer and saxophonist Amber Woodhouse, and multi-instrumentalist and singer Ed Jurdi, who also plays with Band of Heathens. Their collective music roots include country, Delta blues, R&B, gospel, Southern rock and funk.

The Sept. 18 concert will feature songs from Trigger Hippy’s sophomore album, “Full Circle and Then Some,” and other selections. Doors will open at 6 p.m., and the show will start at 7 p.m.

Gorman played with The Black Crowes for 27 years and wrote about the often volatile experience in a memoir, “Hard to Handle: The Life and Death of the Black Crowes.”

He spoke about Hopkinsville’s influence on his life in a story for Hoptown Chronicle. A Rolling Stones story describes his transition to Trigger Hippy. 

Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.