Jason Kenney Interview

Tim Baker – I guess the biggest question I have for you, is what happened with Corey Smith?
Jason Kenney – (chuckling) Well, that’s a hard one.
TB – Because ya’ll were so good together.
JK – I definitely agree with that – we had a good thing going. It started out real informal…I met Corey when I was sixteen in a bar in Georgia, in my hometown of Dahlonega, Georgia. We talked and he asked to play on his cd, “In the Mood.” So I played on the cd and then some of the cd release parties. Basically, he just called me whenever he wanted me to play. So pretty much every gig, he would call me, and over the last three years we have worked really closely. There are so many things I could say about that, but because I’m Corey’s friend, I don’t want to say a lot of them. One of the big reasons for leaving was, I had spent three years of my life playing Corey Smith’s music—and initially I could still play my own gigs and still do my own thing. But then it to where, I was half of the show, and I had to be there for all the shows. We were touring so much, for the last year especially, five nights a week, and I never had any time to do my own thing. So once certain events went down and I saw where things were going, which I will say that, I really like the direction things are going. It just seemed like the right thing for me to do was to get out, and concentrate on the music which I really love.
TB – That’s very understandable. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Corey’s music and he’s a great guy, but taking you away from his live performance really kills it.
JK – And I’m really sorry to Corey for that, but I know he’ll truck on, I know he’s got a violinist and stand-up bass player with him now. So it will be a different show, but I’m sure the quality will be there.
TB – You grew up in Dahlonega, where you met Corey, and you obviously are very good guitar player. Did you have any help learning to play the guitar, or were you mostly self taught?
JK – Well I got into blue grass when I was fourteen because my girlfriend was into it and she played the bass. Actually her whole family played and her brother was this awesome mandolin player who went to all these national competitions and was just really good. So I started playing guitar because I met them when I was fourteen, and so they would show me stuff. I really just immersed myself in blue grass and just surrounded myself with people who were better than me, and played with them. In a way I taught myself, but I also learned from all the people I have played with in the past. I also listened to a lot of records, which really helped me out a lot.
TB – Your songwriting is pretty unique, do just let your music come to you, or do you sit down and write?
JK – Everytime I try to make myself do it, it comes out wrong. It’s actually funny that you asked that. The other day, me and one of my good friends, and amazing songwriter, Jeffrey Learner were talking about how music is like a butterfly. You have got this butterfly, and you can try to capture that butterfly and hold on to it and keep it for a really long time. Or you can let the butterfly go and experience it for what its worth. Music is like that, in that music is already floating in the room, its already floating all around us. The key is to tune into the music and letting it flow through you. You don’t have to capture it… when you try to capture it, that’s when stuff comes out convoluted and insincere. So that’s why I try my hardest to just open myself up to the music that’s around me. I don’t like thinking what I’m writing about because it just takes the honesty out of it. That way, I can learn too, while I write the songs.
TB- Your debut LP, “Without Sidewalks” has some great stories in the songs. Are there any interesting things that helped inspire those songs?
JK- Well a lot of the songs (about half), are traditional songs and then the other half are songs that I wrote by myself, or were co-written. I write different than most people write. Most people write about one specific thing and that’s it, there’s no question what it’s about. I like to write about things that could be about a lot of different ideas, that mean something to me, but could mean, something completely different to someone else. So I kind of veer away from telling people what my songs are about just to kind of “keep the magic.”
TB – “To each his own.”
JK – Exactly, but those songs(“Without Sidewalks) are about two years old, and I’ve got a lot of new material that I’m about to go in the studio and record. I’ve also been writing a lot with Lara Polangco and I’m really just in a different place then I was then.
TB – So do you think you will record a separate album aside from your band (The Family Honor)?
JK – Actually we (The Family Honor) have about two or three more songs to finish up and then the album will be done. The Family Honor is really my drive these days
TB – And did you write a lot of material that will be on the Family Honor album?
JK – Yeah, I wrote four or five songs and Lara wrote a lot of it too.
TB – This is a broad question, but what really entices you about music…what makes you so passionate for this profession?
JK – Depending on how I feel, its for different reasons but its consistently a drive. I read this quote not to long ago that said “without music, life would be meaningless.” I feel like that music is one of those mysterious elements in the world. It’s always been there in nature all over the place and it just makes sense, ‘of course I play music’, it’s like my connection with God and myself. Music is a way to expand the boundaries and to just express how I feel to get all of the extra energy out, to help people. You can do so many things with music, all at the same time. Music is one the most versatile and easily accessible mediums. Pretty much everyone listens to music. Not everyone looks at art and not everyone appreciates…gardening (chuckles). Even though there is just as much art in that, music is just a much more broad medium of exchange.
TB – A universal language.
JK – Exactly, I can go over to Japan and sing a melody and the people wouldn’t understand a word I was saying, but still get the message
TB – Growing up in Dahlonega, Georgia…what do you think your biggest musical influences were?
JK – It’s weird, because I was pretty much lost until I was about fourteen, and then I found blue grass. The reason I got into blue grass is because it’s the first music I heard that had soul. I didn’t really know that at the time, but something was drawing me to it.
After bluegrass, which got old after a while, I got really into Bob Dylan who was a huge influence, and then John Prine, Patti Griffin, Darrell Scott, really just a lot of different things. I like a lot of independent song writers that noone has ever heard of.
TB – So what have you been listening to lately?
JK – It’s kind of funny, actually that you asked that because I have been listening to a lot of Hindu music lately – I love Indian music. Their music is just completely different, they just have a whole different scale than we use in western music…they have quarter tones. I’ve actually been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan and Elliot Smith to.\
TB – If you could bring back any one artist that is either dead or broken up…who would it be?
JK – The Band, no question…they were great. They were like the ultimate band, maybe the best band that ever lived, as a whole you know.