Kenny, Live On The Deck...

Click on photo to enlarge

Our friend, singer & guitarist Kenny Hamsley, came over and played for us today.

The photo on the left was taken on our deck this afternoon, and, on the right, is the cover of the Georgia Boy CD I produced with Kenny in September of 2003.

I met Kenny at a bus stop in December of 2002, and, after inviting him over for dinner to hear him play & sing, I just had to get him recorded.

We recorded 18 songs (most of them in one take) during three sessions at Superchief Studios here in Big Bear at a cost of about $400.

Kenny has sold several hundred of these CDs at local clubs in the past 2 years and I was able to realize one of my lifelong dreams, to conceive, design, and produce an album with an unknown musician.

It was a great experience for both of us and the CD turned out great.

Below are the liner notes I wrote for the CD.

Kenny Dale Hamsley was born on January 6th 1953 in Unadilla, Georgia---42 miles south of Macon---where highways 41 and 230 intersect.
He was the 13th of 15 children born to Melvin and Alice Hamsley, and, at the age of 6, was given his first guitar---a gift from older brother Herman.
Kenny has 11 brothers and 3 sisters, all but one of which play musical instruments or sing, yet interestingly enough, neither of their parents were musically inclined.
Kenny's mother Alice gave birth to the first of her 15 kids when she was only 13 years old, and reached the ripe old age of 84, even after her husband Melvin died at 59, leaving her as the sole parent, and loving matriarch, of their very large family.

In his teens, Kenny fronted a 'Future Farmer's Of America' sponsored string-band, which he named the K-Hams Band, while attending Unadilla High School where he was also a notable quarterback for the Unadilla Blue Devils until 1970, when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, training to be a Navy Seal.

By the age of 22 Kenny was back with a new version of the K-Hams Band, playing all around his part of Georgia, as the band cooked up their own steaming renditions of the best 'Southern Rock' of the day, adding some original songs to the mix as well. Reveling in the music of bands such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers, The Marshall Tucker Band, Alabama and the Doobie Brothers, the K-Hams Band worked all the local towns, including Cordele, Warner Robbins and Perry, where they were regulars at places like the Flamingo Club, The Commodore Lounge, Mount Chalet and numerous VFW halls.

Kenny also sang and played piano in church and, at his mother's insistence, performed often for the elderly at various nursing homes. "Those nursing home performances are among my best memories", Kenny said, "seeing the sparkle in the old folks eyes when we came to play for them".

Life, and the circumstances of reality being what they are, Kenny wouldn't find a lasting career in music, but he never stopped playing or sharing his rare natural talent with all who would listen. And while living in Big Bear City, California for the past two years, Kenny, when he's not pounding nails at some construction job, is still at it, gracing the front porches of a few fortunate mountain friends as he sips his vodka, plays guitar, & sings the hours into sweet oblivion.

Kenny is old school and his sensitive handling of songs by the likes of Merle Haggard, Hank Williams and George Strait can melt even the hardest of hearts, but he can pick the hell out of a guitar too, so just when you think you've had enough of them sad ol' songs, he'll lay into some old-time country pickin' or classic southern rock wicked enough to raise the dead.

Finally, after more than four decades of playing & singing, Kenny Hamsley is on CD, his first recording. I hope you enjoy this heartfelt down-home front-porch music as much as I do. Straight from the heart, this good ol' Georgia country boy, dedicates the CD to his daughter, Angelica Christina Hamsley.

What we recorded through musical kinship, is now passed along to friend and family, especially Kenny's siblings. So here's to the rest of the Hamsley clan!

Frank, Bob, Mary, Nell, Herman, Willy, Carolyn, Horace, Melvin Jr., Roy Elbert, Floyd, Larry Eugene, Ronald (Terry) and Benny (Butch).