www.kenejackson.com
Playing Since: 1980
Experience Level: Purty Good
Interests:
[Teaching] [Jamming] [Helping]
Occupation: Musician, tunesmith, teacher, artist
Gender: Male
Age: 69
My Instruments:
Two late 19th/early 20th Century German fiddles that I bought from Rafe Stefanini.
Favorite Bands/Musicians:
I love traditional fiddle music from varied places, but over the last 25 years my primary inspirations have come from old-time fiddlers from the middle and southern Appalachian region in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, southwest Virginia, and western North Carolina, especially those whose playing was rooted in pre-1900 styles and repertoire.
Classified Rating: (0)
Rate this Member
Profile Info:
Visible to: Public
Created 6/26/2007
Last Visit 12/12/2024
Kenny Jackson is a player of uncommon subtlety and individuality. He's known for the true spirit and vitality with which he renders his own expressions of traditional tunes as well as tunes that he has composed.
Kenny’s playing is rooted deeply in the traditional fiddle styles of old-time players from the American South, learned first hand through visits with elder masters, drawn from a wealth of archival recordings, and honed in countless hours of playing at fiddler's conventions, on front porch and kitchen sessions.
He has been a part of several outstanding string bands, touring in the mid-80s with with Brad Leftwich and Linda Higginbotham, in the late 80s and 90s with The Rhythm Rats (including Paula Bradley and Whitt Mead) and he was a founding member in 1999 of the internationally-acclaimed North Carolina string band Big Medicine (along with Joe Newberry, LaNelle Davis, and Bobb Head). Since 2012 he has also played with the Bowbenders (along with Erynn Marshall, Carl Jones, and Bobb Head).
Kenny has appeared as a performer at numerous festivals such as MerleFest, the Ulster-American Folk Park in Northern Ireland, the Winnipeg Folk Festival, the Wheatland Music Festival, and the Appalachian String Band Music Festival to name a few. He's also appeared on media broadcasts such as A Prairie Home Companion, ABC-TV's Good Morning America, BBC-Belfast Radio, the Renfro Valley Barn Dance, WPAQ's Merry-Go-Round, and the WWVA Jamboree. Add that to the many concerts, dances, and other venues where he's played, and you get a picture of a seasoned performer.
Having taught fiddle for some twenty five years, Kenny has been an influence on emerging old-time musicians around the country. He's taught many private students as well as attendees at workshops and music camps, including Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camp, Augusta Heritage Arts Workshops, Mars Hill Blue Ridge Music Week, Alaska Fiddle Camp, and the Brandywine Friends of Old-Time Music.
Kenny can be heard on a number of recordings, including his 2004 solo CD Over the Mountain; on the Big Medicine recordings Pine to Pine, Fever in the South and Too Old to be Controlled; and I Believe I'll Go Back Home and Pretty Crowing Chicken, with the Rhythm Rats.
