Kenny Marco obit

Brantford-born Motherlode guitarist Kenny Marco dies at age 77

 

He was not on the list.

“When I die I hope to be, A better man than you thought I’d be…”

Those lyrics from Motherlode’s smash hit single When I Die in 1969 ring true for those who knew and loved Brantford-born guitarist Kenny Marco.

Marco died at the age of 77 on May 24 in Saskatoon after a battle with cancer.

“When that record, When I Die, came on the radio I remember I was sitting in somebody’s car, and it just seemed ironic. Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones had just died,” shared musician and visual artist John Mars of Paris, Ontario. “As a young musician at the time, to have a guy from your hometown who was No. 1 across Canada was inspiring and made me want to do something with music.”

Mars would later become a correspondent for Blitz magazine that published his interview with Marco in 1982.

“I bought my first guitar from Ken’s Radio in Brantford,” Marco told Mars. “I had a morning paper route. I used to go by their window on my bike, delivering papers. I looked at this guitar hanging in their window, and I grew attracted to it.”

Marco bought the hollow-body Exquisite with a pick-up attachment for $59.95 when he was 12 years old and after a while of playing, put it down. When his brother Bill began playing it better than he could, he decided to get his chops together.

Marco attended Pauline Johnson Collegiate and while there put together his first band called The Galaxies that would play regional dances, along with gigs in Toronto and Windsor.

In 1962, he and several bandmates formed The Marque-Royales, followed by The Beau Keys in 1964.

“I remember (one) night at BCI watching his fingers float over the fret board and thinking there’s a difference between a gift and a lot of practice,” Mars told The Expositor this week. “It’s the proverbial 10,000 hours to become a virtuoso. And then there’s talent and a lot of practice.”

Marco would later become a member of Grant Smith and the Power, but due to “no originality happening in that band” he and bandmates left to form Motherlode.

“We wanted to write, but there was no room to do it,” Marco said in the Blitz magazine interview. “It was a mutual misunderstanding. We just weren’t enthused about playing other people’s material.”

Motherlode enjoyed success in the United States more so than Canada initially, and played pop festivals throughout 1969-70 including the Rock and Roll Revival in Toronto with Chuck Barry, to which John Lennon attended.

He would later play with David Clayton-Thomas and Blood, Sweat and Tears before doing recording sessions with the likes of Eta James and Jackie De Shannon; and sat in with the Tonight Show Band.

Canadian guitarist Kenny Marco  performed at the Brantford International Jazz Festival — organized by his cousin, jazz drummer Frank DiFelice  — on Sunday September 18, 2016 in Brantford. Photo by Brian Thompson /The Expositor

Brantford jazz drummer Frank DiFelice said Marco was a very well-respected guitarist who was versatile and fit right in with whomever he played.

“Kenny and I were first cousins and were very dear friends,” DiFelice shared. “When we were both roughly 14, he was working on guitar, and we started doing some local gigs together.

“Our favourite musicians were Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks (who would) play Sunday nights at the Summer Gardens in Port Dover. Another cousin would drive us down to see the show.”

In 2016 Marco performed during the Brantford International Jazz Festival, an event DiFelice and his wife Nancy organized annually for 23 years.

“Physically he’s not with us but mentally, he’ll always be there with me,” DiFelice shared.

Marco’s daughter, Kimberley Fyfe, said her mother – Judith Chiki – met Marco when his western Canadian tour in 1984 brought him to the Bar K club in Saskatoon. Chiki drove three hours to the band’s next gig in Maple Creek, SK to see them play again.

“Her and Kenny started chatting more between sets on stage,” Fyfe said. “I think they had a dance that night, and then he carried on with the rest of his tour. About a year later he decided to move to Saskatoon.”

Fyfe, who lives in Regina, said the couple married and Kenny connected well with the music scene in Saskatoon.

“He had so many amazing stories and that’s what breaks my heart,” she said. “All those incredible stories that are now gone with him that we were never able to capture.”

Fyfe relayed one such story of Kenny being underage and not allowed to play with his band that was booked for a week-long gig at a hotel.

“They were able to drill a hole through the floor. His amp was up on the stage, but the cord went through the floor below the stage,” she noted. “Kenny would sit on a stool below the stage and play guitar. People watching the show could hear the guitar but couldn’t see the player.”

Fyfe said her father was “a lovely, lovely man” who had a great amount of empathy for people.

“Music was the love of his life, and people came a close second,” she said of her father. “We all miss him in more ways than I can tell you.”

Fyfe said a celebration of life is being planned for later this summer in Saskatoon.

“Our idea is to have an open stage. We’ll have a Kenny Marco set list up, to have a great party,” she said. “That’s what Kenny would want for sure. Play some music and get down, as he would say.