Today we’d like to introduce you to Ken Gaines.
Hi Ken, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was always “one of those kids”. Songs and singing were a normal, joyous part of life. I sang the songs I heard on television as well as in school performances. I sang the songs my parents listened to and those of my friends. I also learned very early on that the songs I heard on the radio and TV were not always written by the big stars performing them. They were often written by “normal” people….like me!! I wrote my first little song in 3rd grade and never stopped. When I was 13 my Dad, a career Air Force NCO, bought a ukulele, then a guitar for my brother and me. We both took to them to the point that sharing was no longer an option. We soon needed our own instruments. By High School in both Wiesbaden Germany and Northern California, I was singing and playing in both folk and rock groups…and getting paid for it. I was hooked. I knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I just didn’t know how to go about it.
Starting college in southern Mississippi in the Fall of 1969 I bounced back and forth between performing in nightclubs and restaurants, acting in a local wild west show, and going to school…sometimes more than one at the same time. Yes, my grades suffered but I was passing courses. Meanwhile, my “real” education was studying, learning, and performing songs. And, not just contemporary songs but those of my parents’ and grandparents’ generations. For the next 2 decades, in and out of college, working at other jobs, raising a family, and a stint in the Air Force I kept performing professionally and learning from my ever-growing number of heroes. I was also writing up a storm, a lot of mediocre songs. Little did I know that was all part of the process.
By 1984, I was “finally” done with formal education. In the process, I’d earned 2 degrees (Theater Arts and Drawing & Photography), 3 minors, (English Lit, Art History, and Secondary Education). That summer my family and I moved to Colorado. It was brand new territory and a brand new start. While working as a Fine Art photographer and photo instructor I started picking up gigs again and meeting a new brand of contemporary singer-songwriters. After a couple of years, the music completely took over. Also, my own songs had gotten much better.
Throughout the next few moves to Ithaca, NY, then San Antonio, Texas I’d established myself as a performer of original songs.
Since 1988 I’ve toured practically every part of the U.S. I’ve gotten heavily involved with the Kerrville Music Foundation and Festival, as well as the Southwest Regional Folk Alliance, the Folk Alliance International and other performance organizations. Since moving to Houston in 1992, I’ve recorded 3 albums, written for film and children’s theatre, and become a producer of live music shows…most notably with Houston’s Legendary Anderson Fair. I also put my Theater training into practice t become a professional emcee, 11 years for the Texas Music Awards, and now 10 (and counting) for the Songwriter Serenade performing songwriter competition.
At the urging of friends and colleagues, I took up teaching the craft, and history of songwriting and basic performance skills. Developing theme specific seminars as well as performance lectures on the songs and stories of my heroes, I’ve learned to work with people of all ages, most notably High School and College aged students, grounding them in the foundations of the craft. I’ve taught for over a decade for the Kerrville Music Camp for Teens, the Boys and Girls Club of Central Texas, and, just lately, as an adjunct professor at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas.
That brings us up to the present. I’m still out there playing all over the country and thoroughly enjoying it.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I have to smile at this question. It is a rueful, hard won smile. I don’t think there is such a thing as a smooth road in the music business. And, for the most part, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. A bumpy, curvy road is an interesting one. The struggles have been both professional and personal. On the professional side, it just takes so long to even begin to produce something of real quality as a performer and, most importantly, a writer. In my mid 30’s I burned the first 40o or so songs I’d written previously because I reached the realization that not only did they not even begin to stack up beside the songs of my heroes, but they lacked a foundational understanding of what makes for a good song.
As a performer, I was a guy with a good voice, but a lazy one. The same with my accompaniment skills. The same with my skills as an entertainer. It took a long time for me to realize that part of my job was to really engage and audience and make every single one of them feel as if I was singing to them.
About 25 years ago I came off a particularly exhausting, unprofitable tour feeling like I never wanted to go out there again. I had also “formularized” my show. I knew what I was going to sing and say next. I was boring myself.
Luckily, I came home to Houston and fell, almost immediately, into writing for a children’s theater company, then did some film work. It was fresh and made me write for voices other than my own with songs I would not have written otherwise. That gave me a lot more confidence as a writer. I realized that there were different voices and characters within me.
Then I started doing shared performances both duos and “in the rounds” as we call them. I became a host and producer for these shows. Every night was different and every night, especially as a host, I had to perform different songs in order to make the flow of the night work. I didn’t know what I was going to sing or say next. After a few years of this, I came to the realization that every performance, whether I was sharing it with others or on my own, was different and, I rarely knew exactly what was going to happen next. I was excited every night, never bored and, not only did my performances reflect it, my future writing did, as well. That excitement continues and grows to this day.
Based on this, I worked on ways to constantly reinvent myself and grow into not just a performer of songs but an emcee and a teacher. The performances weren’t all about me, but all the others both on stage and in the audience. I was just a part of the process.
Personally? Well, let’s just say there are a lot of hard knocks and mistakes to be absorbed when you’re constantly leaving your home and venturing out into the unknown. I’m a lucky man in that those closest to me have loved me and put up with me in the process. It’s also a physically rigorous life and keeping up your health is tough. I think I’ve learned a lot from watching heroes, good friends, and colleagues ruin their health, their lives, and, in some cases, die way too young.
In the end, your family and your health are the most important things in your life. And, I’m still struggling to get better. I like to tell my students “It never gets easier. You just get better.”
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a singer/songwriter, entertainer, emcee, and teacher…all of those things.
What am I most proud of? Personally, I’m most proud of my family, wife, children, grandchildren, and the friends I know as family.
Professionally, I’m most proud of the fact that I’m constantly growing. I’m a better writer and performer today than I was yesterday…or 50 years ago.
What sets me apart is just when you think you know what and who I am and try to draw a line around me I’ll break through that line and show you something different.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Oh, yes. I’ve picked up some very valuable extra skills learning how to take what I do and do it on streaming platforms. I’ve bought and learned to work with new tools. I’ve designed my own little “stage” inside my office. And I’ve learned to concentrate my focus on a little camera that is my window into a virtual audience. These are skills I will continue utilizing as, Covid-19 or not, I can reach a nationwide or worldwide audience in a single, live performance.
I’ve also learned just how incredibly precious actual live performances are whether I’m one of the performers or in the audience. It has reinforced earlier lessons that every performance is not only different but to be savored as if it was the last one experienced.
One of the choruses I wrote before I completely understood it goes like this:
“Cast your troubles upon the waters.
Let ’em flow into the sea.
Live your life
As if this morning
Was all the sunlight
You’ll ever see.”
Contact Info:
- Email: ken@kengaines.com
- Website: http://www.kengaines.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ken.gaines
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1FUHvHpW6oN5B82T1zSGRg
