“Kenny Cordray is one of the greatest blues and rock players I’ve ever heard.”

-Jaco Pastorious

South Texas. Humidity, sweat, BBQ and of course, Blues. Kenny Cordray is the embodiment of the heart and soul of South Texas music. A gifted and eloquent musician, Kenny has shared the stage with some of music’s greatest artists including John Mayall, John Lee Hooker, Billy Gibbons, Jerry Lee Lewis and many more.

Starting out in the late sixties, a teenaged Kenny quickly joined The Children as their lead guitarist. The band quickly gained a reputation in the Houston music scene and later got signed to ATCO Records (a subsidiary record label of Atlantic Records) and then onto ODE Records, where they were produced by Lou Adler. Adler, who can now be seen courtside next to Jack Nicholson at Lakers games, was a prominent pop music entrepreneur from the late fifties up until the mid seventies working along with high ranking acts such as Carole King, The Mamas and Papas, Spirit and the Monterrey Pop Festival.

After cutting his teeth with The Children, Kenny started pursuing a solo career as a guitarist. It didn’t take long for the music industry to take notice of his prodigious guitar talent, as he started making guest appearances with a slew of famous recording artists. His collaborations eventually led to the most ground-breaking point in his career where he co-wrote one of ZZ Top’s most famous songs, Francine. A song about teenage lust, it eschews charm for raunchy blues licks and notably began Rio Grande Mud when it was released in 197, and released in 1990 becoming ZZ Top’s first chart topping hit.

What followed was a whirlwind of serious collaborations; notably, when Jaco Pastorious tapped Kenny for The Wayne Cochran and C.C. Rider band. After becoming a permanent member of the C.C. Riders, Kenny embarked on a new collaboration with one of the grandfather’s of rock and roll, Jerry Lee Lewis. Kenny was featured in Lewis’ band in an episode of The Midnight Special and In Concert.

During this time, Kenny was also able to work with legendary producer David Foster in the band Skylark. Skylark was one of the early-recorded works of Foster, who eventually went on to write and produce Grammy-winning artists as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Celine Deon. With Skylark, another hit single was born in Wildflower.

It didn’t take long until Kenny returned back to the music scene with full force that he met up with two incredible musicians that would change his musical life forever. Dave Foster and Todd Harrison were both A-list session players and veterans of the Montreaux Jazz Festival in addition to being featured rhythm musicians for the band Cold Sweat. Kenny joined the band picking up right where he left off, and soon thereafter formed a new group in 1991 called Civilians and opened for one of the ultimate rock bands of all time, Cheap Trick.

A few years followed where Kenny, Dave and Todd continued to hone their craft and their band Kenny Cordray and Blue Science, releasing two albums. However, their most recent project entitled Love Street Light Circus Feel Good Machine marks Kenny’s most accomplished piece of work. Recorded at his home studio in early 2004 and mixed at the legendary SugarHill Recording Studios, with engineer Andy Bradley, the album pays homage to Kenny’s blues guitar roots and features a variety of guest performances by local Houston artists, including: Tommie Lee Bradley (vocals), Kelly Dean (saxophone), Ian Varley (keyboards), Ralz Mathias (vocals), Louis Cabaza (piano) and Todd Harrison (drums).

After finishing the Love Street album, Kenny went off into one of his other endeavors head first; teaching music. He opened Rock Camp Live in 2005 which puts teenagers of all skill types into bands and gives them a two-week instructional course in rocking, then getting them on stage to show off their stuff. Each year with Rock Camp is a new experience for Kenny and seeing the face of kids who thought they could never play on stage continues to rejuvenate Kenny’s musician ethos.

Currently, Kenny is pursuing his growing teaching empire through Danny D’s music. In addition to teaching, Kenny is working in the studio at SugarHill and doing live gigs all around the Houston area, honing his eclectic myriad of guitar musings.