Kenny Smith (7)

Ken “Kenny Lee” Smith blues guitarist, producer,engineer and piano man based in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Kenny has entered his fourth decade as a full time musician, on top of his game and remaining one of the most consistently working musicians around. Traditionally known as the big bad bluesman who can play a guitar with anything, piano lessons were, in fact, his first experience with music growing up in Barren County. His first high school band also provided his first songwriting and marketing experience. The Nobles consisted of Ken Smith on bass and Leslie Bowman on guitar. “We wrote Beatles songs”, said Kenny. After that he became a keyboard man, until he decided the Hammond Organ was to heavy to carry around. After graduating, Kenny Lee moved to Louisville to study Civil Engineering at the University of Kentucky. Kenny spent much of this period playing frat parties with a few college type bands . After earning his degree he relocated to Cincinnati and then settled in Bowling Green. He worked as a civil engineer in Louisville by day and by night traveled the area with Buster Brown (Steve Holmes, drums; Rico Thomas, bass; Bobby Richey, vocals; Kenny Lee, guitar). Kenny describes this as his first big guitar rock band and the group became known throughout the region. In fact it is often sited as a major influence of other bands, particularly the Kentucky Headhunters. After moving to Bowling Green, Kenny tried his hand at Southern Rock with Slickrock which featured three lead guitarists. Slickrock with Mike Clark (guitar), Mike Hildreth (guitar), Jamie Ebert (guitar, vocals) and Billy Judd (drums) were already in existence when Ken Smith stepped into the frontman position. Despite these accolades, the 70’s were a low point in Kenny’s musical experience, marked by frustration from his limitations and inabilities.There were even thoughts of giving up music until one of Kentucky’s greatest sons came home to retire and took the young Kenny under his wing. “Looking back, I was untrained in my rock band experience. I didn’t truly feel I was a musician until I got with Billy Vaughn. Now I can sit in in any environment and hold my own.” Kenny discovered in playing Big Band and Dixieland with the Billy Vaughn Band how easy it was to get over the differences in music. Billy Vaughn and Doc Livingston educated him on music theory, sheet music and charts. Kenny started on bass with the Billy Vaughn Band and then moved to guitar, playing regularly. Soon he and the drummer, Jeff Jones, decided they wanted to play out more than the rest of the band and formed a new trio. After adding Byron House on bass, the Ken Smith Band was born. Then one night Kenny was out playing piano and a girl from the audience stood up and sang Summertime. It was the best he had ever heard anyone perform the song. The next week she showed up with a friend and the two sang it in harmony and sounded even better. He invited them to sit in at the next Ken Smith Band gig after which Jonell Mosser and Jane Pearl were added to the lineup indefinitely. Sam Bush called Kenny to offer a bass player position in a new band, Newgrass Revival.Kenny, he thought that a new player he had seen might be more what Bush was looking for and suggested John Cowan. Kenny eventually ended up playing piano on their Barren County album. During the early eighties while New Grass Revival was reforming he also began playing with Duckbutter made up of Sam Bush, John Cowan, Byron House and Jeff Jones. Duckbutter also frequently included the keyboards of Al Cooper (Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan) and later Reese Wynan (Stevie Ray Vaughn). The popular group still plays today as schedules allow. Ken went on the road with Big Al and the Heavyweights. Ken fronted the band and Big Al was the drummer and band leader. The other players changed, with the most notable being Michael Gough on bass and William House on harmonica. As with his other bands their repertoire included both covers and Ken Smith originals. Soon Kenny decided to go off on his own. He discovered that there were several Ken Smiths in the blues genre and it was causing confusion among the venue owners. He started booking himself as Kenny Lee Smith, a reference to Alvin Lee comparisons he had heard while playing “I’m Going Home”. Soon the Smith was dropped completely. The BBQ Blues Band was created to back him. Long time friend Rico Thomas played bass throughout the 90’s and drummers seemed to come and go. The longest stints were filled by Mitchell Plumlee and Kevin Lovelace. The Kenny Lee persona really came into its own during this time. Kenny, who had always possessed a bit of showmanship pulled out all the stops to make the Kenny Lee experience interactive. By the time the century rolled over, Kenny Lee decided he was ready for a change. He decided to leave the road and focus his attention on local solo performances. This has given him time to produced/engineered Brennan Graves’ first album as well as a demo for Kurtis Matthew, Rick Starts and Dennis Atkins. He is also in the process of remastering older recordings, including several bootleg tapes of Duckbutter. When he’s not tweaking music on the computer Kenny Lee still plays solo gigs three nights a weeks.