The second half of the Tunes at Twilight season is set to kick off tonight with a bang.
As the concert series makes its return to the Common Pleas Courthouse Gazebo (this time at 6:30 p.m. instead of 7 p.m.) it will do so with what is sure to be one of its most captivating and competent acts yet -- a fingerpicking specialist named Kraig Kenning.
Kenning, a Chicago-area native who was once named the best unsigned slide guitarist by National Guitar Co., has been playing guitar for decades, and it shows.
"I get teased a lot from my girlfriends saying 'there's a lot of guys at your shows,'" said Kenning. "There are dudes into fingerstyle who will sit right up front and watch me."
The reason for that enthrallment becomes apparent during Kenning's live act. The musician has the pop songwriting sensibilities of a John Lennon, transferred into mostly acoustic work on a dobro guitar, along with the musical proficiency of a true instrumentalist.
"A lot of people really get into the emotional, spiritual side of my playing," Kenning said. "People like to drift off when they see musicians play, it gives them a chance to do their own dreaming. But there are also those dedicated guitarists who come to see me."
Kenning seems go into a trance when playing, with fingers on both hands flailing. His fingerpicking style allows him to fill the roles of both rhythm and lead instrument, eliminating the need for combo playing.
"I'm not unique in this where you get very trancelike through the whole show," Kenning said. "When you get out there something turns on and it stays on until you're done. Lately I've been trying to share that with people in the audience more. I like being able to look at them and knowing they're feeling it too."
It seems that Kenning can't stop himself from playing the guitar in his sets, even plucking the instrument while talking between songs. For Kenning, playing music is an obsession -- one that has gripped him for a long time.
Kenning is so obsessed that he throws himself deeply into performing live, playing hundreds of dates in a year and spending six months each year on the road in his Volkswagen van.
"If people don't know you exist, then how are you going to sell yourself?" Kenning said of his road dedication. "Musicians spend a lot of time building up a fan base. I'm like a modern version of the old medicine man."
While Kenning has been playing music full time for a decade, it wasn't always that way. Along the road he's worked as a night janitor, a cashier, a road paver and a package deliverer. But music has been in his blood since his teens, when he started playing in the fingerpicking style, shunning the popular flatpicking style.
But one of rock's guitar greats, Duane Allman, influenced Kenning to take up slide guitar, which has now become his trademark style. Kenning never really listened to the old Delta blues slidemen like Robert Johnson, but pays his respects to them and plays his slide with the best of them.
Kenning jams out on the raunchy blues slide like a pro, stomping his foot on his kickbox. His music offers a range from those slide stompers to folksy ballads to instrumental flash to the occasional Beatles cover (only Lennon-heavy songs like "Across the Universe" and "A Day in the Life," which Kenning does reggae-style).
Larry Underberg, who books talent for the Tunes shows, said the variety in Kenning's music is what made him a great choice to open the second season. Underberg also thinks his talent will wow the audience.
"He's certainly one of the strongest guitar players we've ever booked," Underberg said.
At first glance, it may seem that a guitar specialist who plays some instrumentals would find it hard to appeal to a wide audience, but Kenning never lets that worry him. He said he has never had a problem with that, even when playing to crowds in Florida where the average age was 70.
That audience connected with his blues tunes, bringing back memories of Muddy Waters, he said. He hopes the Cape Girardeau audience will make a similar connection.
"If you're speaking from your heart they're going to like it," Kenning said.
msanders@semissourian.com
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