Kenny Brown is an American blues slide guitarist skilled in the North Mississippi Hill Country blues style.
He began hearing Otha Turner, Napolean Strickland and others who played at picnics across the road from his home at 7 years old. Brown apprenticed with Mississippi Joe Callicott, who moved in next door to his home in Nesbit, Mississippi, from age 12 to 15, when Callicott died.
Around 1971 Brown began playing with two other musicians. Johnny Woods would make an occasional playing partner until his death in 1990. More steady was Brown's learning with R. L. Burnside, who claimed Brown as his “adopted son,” In the early seventies they started to perform in their region, and would keep up as a duo for thirty years sometimes joined with Calvin Jackson on drums. Cedric Burnside joined their tours from about 1994, as Burnside's reputation surged in the 1990s and early 2000s. Brown first appeared abroad in Sweden in 1989.
On record, Brown recorded with R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Asie Payton, CeDell Davis, Paul "Wine" Jones, Frank Frost, T-Model Ford, Dale Hawkins, Mojo Bufford, Jessie Mae Hemphill, The North Mississippi Allstars, Jojo Herman as well as Cyndi Lauper.
Brown's own debut album was Goin' Back to Mississippi (1996),re-released on Big Legal Mess produced by Dale Hawkins. He has recorded one album for Fat Possum Records, Stingray (2003). He released Cheap, Fast, and Dirty(2006) with Danish guitarist Troels Jensen, at Olufsen Records. Meet Ya In The Bottom (2008) is a CD Baby release, as well as his double album Can't Stay Long in 2011.
Brown's guitar work was featured in the 2006 film Black Snake Moan, where he provided backing for star Samuel L. Jackson's vocals. He can be seen in the film's climax as a guitarist in a blues band, playing alongside Cedric Burnside.
Kenny was a featured artist on The Black Keys Grammy nominated Delta Kream album released in 2021. Recorded in Nashville at the studio of Black Keys singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach, the record with North Mississippi Hill Country legends Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton, finds Auerbach and Keys drummer Patrick Carney paying homage to bluesmen like R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, and Fred McDowell over 11 songs. Delta Kream, was released in 2021 on Nonesuch Records resulting in the nationwide Dropout Boogie national tour in 2022.
Additionally in 2022 Kenny Brown join Hank Williams Jr. for his latest studio release, Rich White Honkey Blues. Produced by Dan Auerbach, the release on the Easy Eye Sound label.
Kenny, along with his wife Sara, are the key founders of blues festival, The North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic. Brown continues to perform locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally and currently lives in the North Mississippi Hill Country.
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