An Interview With Matt Kennon Over At The 9513

Matt Kennon is blessed with one of those voices that, for better or for worse, sets him apart from the rest of the radio dial; from the minute he opens his mouth on his new song “The Call,” it’s clear that the gravelly and deep voiced Kennon is working with a different instrument than most. It took nearly half a lifetime, however, to find out the genetics of where it came from.

He tells a little bit of that story in “The Call,” the second chorus of which deals with a young mother grappling with the heart wrenching decision of whether or not to keep her new baby. It was from Kennon’s own personal experience of being that baby that the song’s lyrics took root.

I had an opportunity to talk to Matt while he was travelling through Alabama on a bus about his roots and his upcoming new album. You can read the entire feature interview HERE after looking at a snippet below.

Well, there’s a handful of songs–probably a six pack–that I call “life.” They’re things that I’ve been through, things that I’ve seen and that are important to me. I’ve had the opportunity to write eight of the 12 songs that are on the record. But I don’t think you’ll hear a whole lot of difference between the songs I wrote and the songs I didn’t. I found songs on stuff that I had been through written by others too. You’ll hear some impact songs, some ballads on there and balls-to-the-wall country rocking stuff. We call it country rock and roll.

I cut my teeth playing drums, so there’s a little bit of stage rock influence on there–especially live. We had Mark Slaughter come play guitar and sing on the record. I had one of my dear friends Jimi Jamison, the lead singer of Survivor, come sing on there too. He was one of [the] biggest influences on me–he was the first concert I ever saw. You’ll hear his voice on there on half a dozen songs.