1981 promo picture of Joe Crisler and Larry Smith - Kinfolk as a duo
In the winter of 1980 - 81, Kinfolk drummer, Jim Hazel, began to have complications from an illness. The band was playing at the Chelsea Street Pub in Albuquerque when Jim got sick and had to be flown home to Alabama for treatment. He was unable to return and Kinfolk was minus a drummer. The band continued on from New Mexico to the next gig at the Highland Mall Chelsea Street in Austin and unsuccessfully attempted to complete the booking without drums. After auditioning several drummers and not finding the right one, Chelsea Street entertainment director, Billy Pritchard, suggested that the band swap bookings with another group and move to the less popular Northcross Mall location. But Kinfolk, being devastated from losing Jim, was unable to recover and ended up disbanding.
Bass player, Rod Wallace, migrated to the Forth Worth area where he played in a number of bands, notably the group Flyer. Rod also worked part time as a fill-in bass player for the Sidemen, a very popular Dallas-Fort Worth blues and R&B group. While working with the Sidemen, he met guitarist Buddy Whittington (who now plays with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers) and from there went on to work with Jerry LaCroix (who worked with Edgar Winter's White Trash) and Rusty Burns of Point Blank. Eventually he settled into a position as bass player for Tommy Allsup. He remained in Forth Worth until the early 1990s when he returned to Alabama, again working with Larry Smith.
Larry Smith and Joe Crisler migrated back to Dallas where they performed as a duo under the names Kinfolk or Sky Father. The duo played mostly in Dallas but also traveled to a few locations in the Southeast, also playing frequently, for example, in Birmingham and Decatur Alabama. Kinfolk the duo's home base was the restaurant at the Melrose Hotel in Dallas, which is called The Library. The above photo and the next two after that were taken in front of the Melrose.
Photographer not known