This week DeBraun Thomas profiles musician Cory Kennedy.
Cory Kennedy is a native of Lexington who started playing music in church. Kennedy learned to play piano from his father. His father was a pastor and during church he would sit beside his father and try to learn. Kennedy says he was trying to be like his father until one church service he finally had his chance to shine.
“We call ticklin the ivories, I was just bangin tryin to figure out what he was doin, so eventually I got the point where I could actually chord out a song, one service when I was playin, he pushed me out to play the whole service without him, even though I was messin up and hittin wrong chords and stuff like that, it was just something inside of me saying this is what I’m supposed to be doin, so I kept on doin it since then.”
Music has been part of Kennedy’s life since then. He has traveled across the country performing with various gospel groups. Over the last 4 years he has been touring with local blues guitarist Tee Dee Young. In the band he takes the place of his mentor, the late Bruce Smith. Kennedy says being in the band pushes him as a musician, but there was an important lesson Smith taught him that he won’t forget.
“He was a person that really crafted me to understand that less is more and once you get what people to understand what you’re saying on your instrument, then you can put in all the fireworks and the other stuff, your intense stuff, like he would say, into whatever you’re playing.”
In addition to performing with Tee Dee Young’s band, Kennedy also fronts his own group Cory Kennedy & Remnant. The group is releasing their first album the Enemy in Me later this year. Kennedy in no rush to release the record until it is ready because he says its message is important to him.
“I’ve learned to be slow and take my time and do it right the first time, because when people hear your stuff, the first impression is everything and if you give them something that’s not totally you, once they write you off, they write you off, you can come out with a second album, but they already wrote you off from the first album, so I gotta make sure that everything in the album is saying exactly what I want to say.”
Cory Kennedy performs with Tee Dee Young and Cory Kennedy and Remnant. The album The Enemy In Me will be released later in 2015. More information about Kennedy and his groups can be found here.
