About Sean Kennedy & the King Cats
Santa Cruz roots rockers Sean Kennedy and the King Kats come to howl at Mother’s Tavern, in SLO. Packing a searing, blues-tinged rockabilly sound, the band recalls The Blasters, The Stray Cats and George Thorogood.
“It’s Americana backyard music for the working class,” says Kennedy. “It’s probably because that I’m kind of white trash. I mean, I grew up living in a trailer park in Texas!”
Admitting a childhood fondness for Stray Cats records, he says that even back then his interests leaned more toward rock than rockabilly. “Texas music and watching Stevie Ray Vaughn play is where all of my early musical influences came from,” he explains. These days, he says he’s working on honing his songwriting skills, drawing inspiration from Steve Earle’s CDs and other alternative country music.
The King Kats’ last CD, Big Town, released almost two years ago, is a definite, retro/rockabilly romp. Mostly originals, the disc also includes a Bo Diddlin’ sounding cover of Buddy Holly’s, “Not Fade Away.” “Before the band got together, I was playing a lot of country acoustic stuff on my own and was a blues guitar player, too, so it just made sense to go this way,” he says.
“Our live shows are more of a mix of surf guitar, roots rock, and jump blues. We’re also getting away from the swing thing that’s been overdone and are ready to go into more of a songwriter stage.”
He says that the band loves playing Mother’s Tavern, and has built up a decent local following. “This’ll be the fifth time we’ve played Mother’s and we’ll make it a high octane evening, which should generate the audience to freak out. We pretty much rock out, I walk out and play the guitar for the crowd. Last time we were there we were playing and all these girls swarmed on stage. No one in the band even knew them, but they were dancing and hanging on all of us and we went on right on playing.”
Now working on a new CD, Kennedy says he expects to have it in fans’ hands by the end of the year. He says he feels good about the King Kats current lineup. “Dave Maneeley’s on the drums, and there’s a vibrant energy in the band because there’s a chemistry there between him and me. Lloyd Tripp, on bass, is from England and is part of the new wave of rockabilly rebels infiltrating America from over there. Wes Anthony, on sax, is a newcomer, and has pretty rootsy influences, like Booker T and the MGs.”
Maneeley moved from L.A. after working with Dick Dale to join Kennedy and the King Kats. The band has played with the likes of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the Specials and the Young Dubliners. Kennedy has played with Stray Cat drummer, Slim Jim Phantom, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, of the Doobie Brothers, and Spider Stacey, the lead singer of the Pogues.
A flashy lead player, Kennedy draws his hard-driving sound form his trusty ’67 Gibson. (His first guitar was a black Harmony acoustic that his mom gave him on his 15th birthday.) Although mostly self-learned, Kennedy was fortunate enough to pick up a few lessons from Jerry Miller of Moby Grape, and Tommy Morrel, who has played with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.
“It’s Americana backyard music for the working class,” says Kennedy. “It’s probably because that I’m kind of white trash. I mean, I grew up living in a trailer park in Texas!”
Admitting a childhood fondness for Stray Cats records, he says that even back then his interests leaned more toward rock than rockabilly. “Texas music and watching Stevie Ray Vaughn play is where all of my early musical influences came from,” he explains. These days, he says he’s working on honing his songwriting skills, drawing inspiration from Steve Earle’s CDs and other alternative country music.
The King Kats’ last CD, Big Town, released almost two years ago, is a definite, retro/rockabilly romp. Mostly originals, the disc also includes a Bo Diddlin’ sounding cover of Buddy Holly’s, “Not Fade Away.” “Before the band got together, I was playing a lot of country acoustic stuff on my own and was a blues guitar player, too, so it just made sense to go this way,” he says.
“Our live shows are more of a mix of surf guitar, roots rock, and jump blues. We’re also getting away from the swing thing that’s been overdone and are ready to go into more of a songwriter stage.”
He says that the band loves playing Mother’s Tavern, and has built up a decent local following. “This’ll be the fifth time we’ve played Mother’s and we’ll make it a high octane evening, which should generate the audience to freak out. We pretty much rock out, I walk out and play the guitar for the crowd. Last time we were there we were playing and all these girls swarmed on stage. No one in the band even knew them, but they were dancing and hanging on all of us and we went on right on playing.”
Now working on a new CD, Kennedy says he expects to have it in fans’ hands by the end of the year. He says he feels good about the King Kats current lineup. “Dave Maneeley’s on the drums, and there’s a vibrant energy in the band because there’s a chemistry there between him and me. Lloyd Tripp, on bass, is from England and is part of the new wave of rockabilly rebels infiltrating America from over there. Wes Anthony, on sax, is a newcomer, and has pretty rootsy influences, like Booker T and the MGs.”
Maneeley moved from L.A. after working with Dick Dale to join Kennedy and the King Kats. The band has played with the likes of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the Specials and the Young Dubliners. Kennedy has played with Stray Cat drummer, Slim Jim Phantom, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, of the Doobie Brothers, and Spider Stacey, the lead singer of the Pogues.
A flashy lead player, Kennedy draws his hard-driving sound form his trusty ’67 Gibson. (His first guitar was a black Harmony acoustic that his mom gave him on his 15th birthday.) Although mostly self-learned, Kennedy was fortunate enough to pick up a few lessons from Jerry Miller of Moby Grape, and Tommy Morrel, who has played with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.
Post a Comment Comments
Great Sound...
http://www.bionicbuddha.com/vsides_ep1_desire.htm
the video is also excellent!
Congratulations