Photo: Kenny Roby - Facebook
Kenny Roby
Kenny Roby
Singer-songwriter Kenny Roby first gained national notice with Raleigh, North Carolina’s 6 String Drag in the mid to late 1990s, emerging from a colorful regional scene that included like-minded groups such as the Backsliders, Whiskeytown, Two Dollar Pistols, Trailer Bride and others.
His celebrated group reformed in the mid-2010s for two albums, while Roby has continued to pursue a successful solo career. His seventh album on his own, a self-titled effort on Royal Potato Family, was released Aug. 5.
The South Carolina native will be making what he thinks is his first live performance in Milwaukee on Friday night at Shank Hall.
“I think back in the 6 String Drag days we played Madison, but I don’t think we’ve ever played Milwaukee,” he says. “But I’ve been to Milwaukee. My dad actually went to school for a little while to get his master’s at Marquette.”
Roby’s latest album is the follow-up to 2020’s The Reservoir, also on Royal Potato Family. Both releases have come since Roby moved to Woodstock, N.Y., in 2019.
Raleigh to Woodstock
After living in Raleigh for nearly three decades, Roby relocated to Woodstock following the end of a 20-year-plus marriage and the death by suicide of his good friend, prominent guitarist Neal Casal, who had been slated to produce The Reservoir.
After Casal’s death, Roby was looking for a spot to record in New York; many of the album’s players lived in New York City or upstate New York. Seeking a studio away from the “hustle and bustle” and distractions of the city, Roby settled on Applehead Recording in Woodstock. Ultimately, he decided not to leave.
“I was looking for a change of scenery, so I just kind of fell in love with it and decided to try it out for a little bit,” he says. “I stayed somewhere temporarily just outside of Woodstock and now I live in Woodstock proper. I met a lot of people, some musicians, some artists, some just regular folks. I like it a lot. It’s very artistic and at the same time, kind of slow, traditional and conservative as well.”
The songs on the new album—perhaps sparer and gentler than past efforts but still characteristically playful—are Roby’s first written in Woodstock, but he’s not sure if the move has changed his songwriting as much as the other changes in his life and in the world. “I think it was more affected by me getting used to solitude and sort of the pandemic,” he says.
Reflecting on his songs with 6 String Drag and on earlier solo albums, Roby says he feels like his songwriting now might dig deeper and reveal truths perhaps more effectively.
“I think I’m getting more involved with the characters and sort of speaking through them and vice versa, kind of getting out of the way so to speak,” he says.
One of the new album’s best songs is the groovy “Married to a Train,” which features the Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian on harmonica. Trains have been a frequent theme for Roby.
He insists he’s not a “train nerd,” but it’s something that connects him to his late father, who loved trains and bought him a Lionel train set for Christmas when he was a kid—the last gift brought out.“It’s sort of a family thing I guess,” he says. “It’s not like I can tell you anything about trains and how they work. It’s not like that. I think it’s like missing that icon and those types of imagery. It’s a traditional American subject as well.”
Amy Helm, daughter of Levon Helm and a Woodstock native, also guests on the album’s leadoff single, “New Day.” Helm also duetted with Roby on a tribute album to Casal, “Highway Butterfly: the Songs of Neal Casal (available at nealcasalmusicfoundation.org).
As for the future of 6 String Drag, Roby says he hopes to record another album with the band. Their last, Top of the World, came out in 2018. He says the band never had a very good reason for breaking up the first time. He and bassist Rob Keller—and fellow founding member—remain close friends.
“The last time around, Rob and I sort of agreed, hey, we’re not breaking up,” Roby says. “I’m going to go work on solo stuff. I’m going to still cultivate my career, but hey, if it works out, let’s get together and play sometimes.”
Kenny Roby performs at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 12, Shank Hall. Fran Cohen Brown opens.
