Tuesday, June 5, 2012

'Tunesmithing' Spotlight: Les Kerr

Singer-songwriter Les Kerr will be one of four blues and jazz artists to perform at "Tunesmithing Off Music Row" on June 20 (Wednesday). The show will occur from 7-10 p.m. at Taps in Hillsboro Village.  Following is more information about Les Kerr.


Mississippi Gulf Coast native Les Kerr combines blues, Gulf Coast and New Orleans influences to create the music he calls “Hillbilly Blues Caribbean Rock & Roll.” A Nashville resident since 1987, Kerr has hosted twenty-one annual Mardi Gras concerts at the Bluebird Café He created and hosts “Original Blues” concerts at the venue, as well, featuring songwriters who focus on blues music.  

His original song Mackinac Blues was included in NPR’s All Songs Considered and Kerr participated in the 2011 Mississippi Songwriters Festival. A three-time Music City Blues Society award nominee, Kerr was nominated for the organization’s Male Vocalist of the Year, Entertainer of the Year and CD of the Year awards.  He was called by OffBeat Magazine of New Orleans, “…a bluesy Johnny Cash,” in a review of his Red Blues CD. 


Lyrics of two of Kerr’s songs, Below the Level of the Sea and New Orleans in the Spring, were included in the New Orleans poetry anthology, Maple Leaf Rag IV.

Highlands of Tennessee, co-written by Kerr and Bryan Cumming, was adopted as the official theme song of the city of Cookeville, Tennessee.

Kerr’s six CDs include his latest, New Orleans Set. As leader of Les Kerr & The Bayou Band, Kerr has performed at Nashville’s Jefferson Street Jazz & Blues Festival, Franklin Jazz Festival, the Southern Festival of Books, and Nashville’s official  July 4 Celebration at Riverfront Park.  He also tours with his band and as a solo performer.  While based in Nashville, Kerr performs periodically in New Orleans, other Gulf Coast locations and throughout the U.S.

Recently, Kerr and his band appeared in Civil War Songs and Stories, a music documentary aired on PBS TV stations nationwide.



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