Kelly Kenning, a native Texan, was born with Country Music in his blood. Growing up he was the only child of a mom who sang country music and a dad who became the Vice President of the Whataburger Inc. franchise in Alice. At an early age Kelly's dad moved his family to San Antonio. It was during that brief stay in San Antonio where Kelly would find himself
performing at the ripe old age of eleven at the Whataburger Convention being held in Ruidoso, New Mexico at the Inn of the Mountain Gods. It was at that moment that Kelly realized music was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
In his early teen years, Kelly got involved in music and formed his first band called Wildfire. He took his show on the road playing dance halls all over Texas. It was in those early years that Kelly started to develop his showmanship. It was also then at the age of 14, when the radio airwaves would hear their first Kelly Kenning song called "Love's Not a Game" written with Wade Duncan. In his twenties, Kelly formed a new band called The Rockinghorse Riders, named after a song
he had on radio at the time. Their sound was traditional, derived from similar sounds of Kelly's strongest influences including the likes of Johnny Rodriguez, George Strait, Vern Gosdin, Merle Haggard, Johnny Paycheck, and Freddy Fender. He traveled the highways and byways of Texas playing his music and honing his craft in the dance halls. Intent on developing his vocal abilities, he would drive the grueling four hour trip to Houston every week to take voice lessons
from respected vocal coach, Debbie Beinhorn. Kelly covered a lot of ground in his days with the Rockinghorse Riders and eventually moved to Nashville in 1996.
While living in Nashville, Kelly honed his skills as a Singer/Songwriter. He developed his own unique music style writing with successful songwriters such as David Chamberlain, Royce Porter, Gerald Smith, Brice Long, Tony Ramey, Trey Matthews, Earl Clark, Woody Mullis and many others, while playing a five year stint at World Famous Tootsie's Orchid Lounge.
In 2004, Kelly moved back to Texas and released his first album on Airastar Records titled "The Ride of My Life", whose title cut scored Kelly a top 5 record on the Texas Regional Radio Report. Kelly is no stranger to the Texas Country Music Scene, He and Pauline Reese just came off a long running chart single with a duet called "Let's get together and Say Goodbye, peaking in December at Number 24. Kelly also enjoyed success with "Pure Strait Country", "She Beat the Cheat out Me" not once but twice as a Duo with Johnny Lee, the second time around.
"Broken Bones", a cut from Kelly's new album "What A Cowboy Was", represents one of Kelly's finest vocal
performances to date. The song tells the story of a Rodeo Cowboy's loves and hurts while chasing his dreams on the Rodeo circuit through the Texas and the Southwest. We chose to release it on the day the World Famous Rodeo Houston opens its doors.
