Jerry Kennedy obit

Jerry Kennedy Has Died

 

He was not on the list.

Jerry Glenn Kennedy, a 13-year-old who recorded for RCA Victor as “Jerry Glenn,” got the shock of his young life when he walked into a Nashville recording studio in September of 1953. • There, among the studio band hired to accompany him, was his ultimate guitar idol – Chet Atkins. “When I saw him, I froze up,” he laughs.

Eight years later, Kennedy began making his own history as a member of Nashville’s A-Team, its elite squad of first-call session musicians. Over the next three decades, his electric guitar and Dobro graced countless rock, country, and R&B records, along the way helping more than a few reach #1.

Playing sessions, however, was only part of his story. As Mercury Records’ head Nashville producer from 1962 to ’84, Kennedy crafted some of Nashville’s most-enduring recordings by everyone from Roger Miller to Charlie Rich, Jerry Lee Lewis to Reba McEntire.

Marty Stuart, a longtime admirer and country historian, agrees.

“Jerry is truly one of the lead architects in the creation of the Nashville sound. He played the hound-dog dobro on Jeannie C. Riley’s ‘Harper Valley PTA’ and on many of Tom T. Hall’s most-iconic songs, and he somehow navigated Jerry Lee Lewis through a decade of sessions that resulted in some of the greatest country music that has ever been made. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

“There’s no one else on earth who can boast of such things. Any of those feats qualifies him for any and all Halls of Fame.”

Shreveport, Louisiana, was the starting point. Born there in 1940, Kennedy grew up in a musical melting pot where country, blues, R&B and Cajun sounds blended freely. His mom, Essie, was a country fan, his dad, Gordon, a deputy sheriff, sang at funerals and weddings.

Shreveport’s KWKH radio also shaped his future. At four, Kennedy discovered his first musical hero – the station’s country singer, Harmie Smith. “I loved the sound of his guitar,” he remembers. A few years later, his parents bought a Silvertone guitar he calls, “…a real piece of junk hangin’ around my neck, but it was enough to get me interested.” A Harmony Gene Autry model soon followed.

In 1948, KWKH debuted the Saturday night “Louisiana Hayride” show, modeled on the Grand Ole Opry. Later nicknamed “Cradle of the Stars,” it launched the careers of Hank Williams, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves, Webb Pierce, Faron Young, and James Burton.

One Friday in June, 1950, Gordon Kennedy took nine-year-old Jerry to his first guitar lesson with Tillman Franks, bassist and guitarist on the “The Hayride.” Gordon died unexpectedly the following Monday, and Franks became a surrogate father/mentor while teaching the youngster to play and sing simple three-chord country songs. His progress was swift and within six months Franks had Kennedy (using a Martin 00-18 his mother bought for him) teaching some of his students.

Kennedy took Franks’ advice to listen to “The Hayride” and visit when he could. At 12, he won a talent contest emulating “Hayride” singer Jimmy Lee Fautheree, who played guitar behind his head. Afterward, Franks, whose connections stretched beyond Shreveport, contacted RCA country producer Steve Sholes (who discovered Atkins and later signed Elvis) about recording the kid as a singer and guitar player (though he wasn’t trying to be a vocalist).

Les Paul and George Barnes were among his other guitar heroes, and he listened to a lot of guitar-oriented material. “R&B things and rock and roll lit a huge fire under me,” he says.

On “Hayride” visits, Kennedy sometimes witnessed history in the making. In late 1952, he saw one of Hank Williams’ final performances, and while sitting in the balcony in October, 1954, Scotty Moore caught his attention as Elvis Presley performed his debut single “That’s All Right.” The memory stands out.

“Scotty starts playin’, Elvis starts dancin’…” The Hayride audience erupted. “We never heard a note that Scotty played!” he laughs.

On other visits, he saw Lefty Frizzell and Hank Thompson; the solidbody used by Frizzell’s guitarist left a deep impression.

“That was the first time I put eyes on a Telecaster,” he said. “I heard it and thought, ‘I’ve gotta have one of those!’ I begged my mom for a year, and I don’t know how – she was not a wealthy lady at all – she was working, selling cookies, and she bought me one.”

To plug in, Kennedy purchased a homemade amp.

Straight out of high school in May, 1958, Kennedy walked into a job. Franks, by then running “Hayride,” added him to the house band. He swapped the Tele for a Les Paul Standard he bought at Shreveport’s J&S Music. Franks had him record a teen ballad in Nashville, backed by the A-Team including guitarists Hank Garland, Grady Martin, and Harold Bradley.

When the show closed in 1960, Kennedy (by then married to former “Hayride” singer Linda Brannon) began freelancing. He swapped the Les Paul to his buddy, future Nashville session guitarist Billy Sanford, for a ’54 Strat that Sanford had painted orange.

“My back was beginning to bother me, and the Strat was lighter,” he explains. “Three hours with it was nothing.”

Occasionally, he worked with Shreveport star Johnny Horton, world-famous for his hit single “The Battle of New Orleans.” Franks, who was Horton’s manager, played bass, and Horton’s guitarist was Gerald “Tommy” Tomlinson.

By then, Kennedy had a second local mentor in Mercury Records promotion man Shelby Singleton. Impressed by Singleton’s uncanny knack for picking hits, Mercury hired him in 1960 as head producer in Nashville, despite the fact he played no instruments.

Seeing the strong sales of Chet Atkins’ instrumental LPs, Singleton signed Kennedy and Tomlinson, and on October 28 and 29, 1960, the duo recorded Guitar’s Greatest Hits, a mix of country, pop, and easy-listening favorites backed by A-Team heavy hitters. Billed as Tom and Jerry, Kennedy used his Strat, Tomlinson his Gretsch 6120.

One moment particularly amused Kennedy.

“Can you imagine a 20-year-old kid sittin’ in a chair 10 feet from Hank Garland, trying to play [Garland’s signature instrumental] ‘Sugarfoot Rag?’” (laughs)

Kennedy’s emotions about the record are mixed.

“It could have been so much better,“ he says. “So many people tell me, ‘I’m a guitar player and I learned how to play by listening to that album.’”

It would be their only collaboration, because just days after the session, Tomlinson lost a leg in a car crash that killed Horton and injured Franks.

“It was years before I would listen to that project,” Kennedy reflected. “It bothered me that much.”

Mercury released three subsequent Tom and Jerry instrumental albums with Kennedy and other session players.

Kennedy started making regular trips to Nashville to translate Singleton’s musical ideas to the musicians on his sessions. When it became a full-time job, he moved his family there in March, 1961.

“Shelby let me go in (the studio) and come up with stuff that was different,” he recalls. His skills impressed other producers, including Atkins, who was RCA’s top country producer at the time, as well as Decca’s Owen Bradley, and Don Law at Columbia, all of whom hired him for sessions.

Wanting a new work guitar, Kennedy purchased a new Gibson ES-335 at Hewgley Music. His A-Team status came quickly where most players gradually worked into those hallowed ranks. Singleton was the key.

“God bless him, man,” Kennedy says. “I had an in that a lot of players did not have.”

Playing electric alongside Hank Garland on Leroy Van Dyke’s hit “Walk On By” Kennedy unleashed his hotter side on Presley’s 1962 hit “Good Luck Charm.” The Bradley brothers became friends and mentors; Harold, considered the Dean of Nashville session pickers was, “…like a big brother when I came to town.”

Playing guitar on Bradley’s productions was special. He called the sessions, “…some of the most-learning experiences I had as far as producing records. To hear what we did in the studio and hear it on the radio was two totally different things. A lot happened in that control room that we didn’t know about.”