Family Tree Dates Back To
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Ken Menard
PO Box 690580
Charlotte, NC 28227
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A
1976
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ARTIST BIO
Ken Menard - Songwriter / Singer
Born in the State of Connecticut in 1966, he is the youngest of five children. Ken was always interested in music and many times would dance around to the music as a baby, loose his balance and fall into things. At one point, his mother used a bathrobe belt to tie Ken into his baby rocking chair because she had to do something in the other room and was fearful that Ken would get up and start dancing around the floor again, fall into something, and hurt himself. There is even a picture of it somewhere.
Before Ken could read, he could identify the songs on his 45 records's by marks on the label. Many times he would tell Mama that he wanted to listen to certain ones. He would sit in his baby rocking chair and sing along.
During Grade School, Ken was always in a play or glee club. Ken would often mispronounce words in a play and really confuse everyone. Ken remembers one specific time during a Christmas play of 'Amahl And The Night Visitors', when he was singing 'His eyes are mild; his hands are those of a king as king he was born'. Ken mispronounced the word 'mild' and it sounded like 'milk' with a 'd'. The audience burst into laughter and many other students could not remember their next lines. Classic moments like that, when the teacher would put his hand over his face and shake his head.
Learning to play the piano at the age of eight; self taught by an organ template that stood up on the keyboard to mark out the chords. Ken would play for hours at a time; not being able to read any music...he memorized the chords and played.
Ken continued in school plays, Glee Club, and Drama Club throughout his Jr. High School years. Ken would play songs and sing for family and friends. One classic song Ken would sing and play was called 'Tzena' which was taught to him by his grade school music teacher, Mr. Bach; another was Bad Bad Leroy Brown.
It wasn't until the late 70's when he would learn how to play guitar, another self taught instrument.
Ken starting writing songs in the early 1980's. Most of the songs were personal stories of his life, friends, or other members in his family. In 1990, Ken hired Larry Lee from the Nashville Song Plugger Association to represent his music to other artists. Several very popular recording artists heard his songs, but Ken assumes the demo tapes were of very poor quality and not much happened with them. Larry Lee passed away in 2001 and Ken did not have any presence in Nashville for ten years. Now he is making his comeback through the Internet, his contacts, and local venues.
Although all of his songs are demos, Ken would like to have them recorded professionally in a studio. Until that time, Ken uses a Zoom Mixer, plays his 12-String, 6-String, Electric or Grand Piano, while singing on individual tracks. Afterwards, all the tracks are combined into his finished demo.
Visit Ken's MUSIC section for more songs he has written and played.
NEW BLOG SECTION - CLICK HERE
(All About Ken's Songs And The Stories Behind Them)
