He quit his job in advertising and gave himself three months to develop his talents as a songwriter.
In 1976-7 He recorded an album with a rock band called 'Holy Roller' at Virgin record's newly opened Manor studio, with Tom Newman (Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells etc.) and Newman subsequently sang all the songs on the demonstration tapes of the White Mansions album
His first project was White Mansions, a 1978 concept album set in the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. The project was picked up by A&M; Records, with Glyn Johns producing. A number of notable artists recorded the music, including Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, Steve Cash of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and Eric Clapton.In 1980, a second concept album was released, The Legend of Jesse James, which featured more notable artists, including Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Charlie Daniels, Albert Lee and Levon Helm.
Neither White Mansions nor Jesse James were commercially successful, but they did establish Kennerley as a serious songwriter. Among his early songs was "Born to Run", which Emmylou Harris recorded in 1981 for her album, Cimarron, and she continues to frequently perform it in her concerts.
Kennerly continued to live in London while he wrote songs, but in 1983 moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he started working with Harris on her semi-autobiographical concept album, The Ballad of Sally Rose, co-writing and producing the album. He also collaborated with Harris on her albums Thirteen and Bluebird, and writing the songs "In My Dreams" and "Heartbreak Hill". He married Harris in 1985, but the couple divorced in 1993.
Kennerley also wrote songs for The Judds ("Young Love", "One Man Woman", "Let Me Tell You About Love", "Cry Myself to Sleep", "Have Mercy" and "Give a Little Love"), Marty Stuart ("Hillbilly Rock", "Western Girls", "Tempted", "Till I Found You", "Little Things"), Tanya Tucker ("Walking Shoes"), Sweethearts of the Rodeo ("Chains of Gold"), Patty Loveless ("Blue Memories") and Juice Newton ("Tell Me True").
He was named Broadcast Music Incorporated Writer of the Year in 1989.
He released a solo album in 1998, Misery With a Beat.
Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:British expatriates in the United States Category:English country singers Category:English country music songwriters Category:English guitarists Category:English singer-songwriters Category:English record producers Category:People from Hoylake Category:People from Nashville, Tennessee
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
