It sounds a bit like an old blues song: I went from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh to Vientiane/I went from Phnom Penh to New Hope, PA. Keith Kenny is taking a break from his Big Red Suitcase tour, which crosses the US from his home base in Asbury Park, NJ to California, for a very special event: headlining a UXO (unexploded ordinance) benefit concert in Vientiane, Laos. Then he swoops through Phnom Penh to bring his high-energy acoustic sounds to Equinox. Here’s what he had to tell The Advisor.
Would ‘mindblowing’ accurately describe your invitation to play at the We Are Kind concert? Did it come completely out of the blue?
Absolutely! I was floored to hear that event organiser Phongsavath Souliyalat (Pong) was a fan of my music and was completely blown away when he invited me to headline the concert. I know that it will really hit me when the trip begins in November.
Your live show seems deceptively simple: acoustic guitar and kicked percussion yet the range of sounds is astonishing, as is the energy. Did you jump out of the bedroom at 16 like this?
[Laughs] I wish that I just jumped out of the bedroom ready to go, but it has been a slow evolution into the live show today. I started doing the solo show in Asbury Park around 2005 and spent years playing locally, performing new material and making tweaks to the songs. Also, obsession with guitar pedals has changed a lot of the tones and sounds that I can get from the acoustic guitar. I am still tweaking and making adjustments at every show trying to get the sound BIGGER!
Do you road test new material, or record it first and let it find its stride?
I’ve actually done both, but most material is tested out in front of an audience before it’s recorded. Sometimes I feel like I can approach the songs better in the studio if I’ve played them on the road for a few months. I can usually get a better feel for the dynamics of the songs that way, but then again there’s always that studio magic that happens when you just record something off the cuff and it turns out to be a fan favourite.
The choice of cover versions often uncovers influences and when I checked a cover of the Led Zeppelin song Bron-Y-Aur Stomp on YouTube it put the folky/bluesy feel of your material in perspective, where you veer away from the country/Americana style.
That tune just seemed to have all the elements for a perfect one-man-band performance and I have loved their whole catalogue since I heard it back in high school. My influences have been all over the map, from heavy metal to finger-style acoustic guitarists to singer/songwriters and old blues artists. That might be one of the reasons I’ve had a hard time finding that defining category for the sound that I’m after.
WHO:Keith Kenny
WHAT: Singer/songwriter and acoustic guitar hero
WHERE: Equinox, #3a Street 278
WHEN: 9pm November 15
WHY:Witness a road-dusted, multi-influenced talent tweaking and searching for a category