Kenny Feidler

Kenny Feidler’s music is dark and gritty, it’s western and rock n roll conjured up with thoughtful, honest songwriting. Feidler got his start as a rodeo cowboy, writing songs about the life and selling his music from the trunk of an old Cadillac. Now he racks up the miles with his band, traveling from his home on the plains of Western South Dakota.

“I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and I always felt sort of homesick for somewhere out west,” Feidler says. “I wanted to be a cowboy since I was little and rodeo was my way into that world. After getting a hold of some Chris Ledoux cds, I started riding bareback horses and rodeoed for about 15 years. It was everything to me for a long time and because I didn’t grow up in it, I feel like I really soaked it all in, appreciated those moments and wrote about them in my songs.”

Feidler’s musical influences are as wide and varied as the road he took to the stage. The cowboy songs from Chris LeDoux, Tom Russell, and Ian Tyson shaped his songwriting and subjects. Feidler went to college in Oklahoma, in the prime of Red Dirt so the songs of Cross Canadian Ragweed, Jason Boland, Reckless Kelly, and Mike McClure were influential. Later he found Lucero and the Drive By Truckers, from them he found the spark to start a band and to grind it out on the road.

“I take a lot of pride in being a working-class band not afraid of the road.” Feidler says, “The fans we have were earned the harder way, many of them have seen us play to a handful of folks before. We sure appreciate them for giving us a shot, they’re our friends now and we’ll always treat them that way”.