The world is collectively adjusting to a Dolly Parton-sized hole after the 80-year-old icon’s family announced her passing on Tuesday (August 25). A country music legend in every sense of the phrase, Parton’s expansive song catalog includes the transcendent 1974 hit “Jolene”. The singer’s crystalline vocals shine in part thanks to the bare-bones approach from the song’s session drummer, Kenny Malone. His subtle rhythms haunt the song’s backdrop. However, they never threaten to overtake the real star of “Jolene” (Dolly’s voice, of course.)
Known for his versatility and unmistakable style, Malone featured on recordings by Merle Haggard, Charley Pride, Kenny Rogers, and more. His resume also included Crystal Gayle’s signature 1977 hit “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue”.
On this day (August 26) in 2021, he died from the SARS-COV2 virus in a Nashville hospital at age 83.
Today, we’re remembering his extraordinary career on the fifth anniversary of his passing.
Who Was Kenny Malone?
Born August 4, 1938, in Denver, Colorado, Kenneth Morton “Kenny” Malone began playing drums at just five years old.
“The day I decided I wanted to be a drummer was the day I heard Dixieland music,” he said in 2005. “I think it was the Firehouse Five back in, like, 1943.”
Enlisting at 17, Malone served in the U.S. Navy band in Washington, D.C. Eventually, he took over as head of the percussion department at the Naval School of Music in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
A 40-Year Career and an Undeniable Impact
After 14 years in the Navy, Kenny Malone moved to Nashville in 1970 to pursue his musical dreams.
Establishing a partnership with legendary Nashville producer “Cowboy” Jack Clement, Malone wasted no time cementing his place among Music City’s go-to session musicians. He first recorded with rockabilly pioneer Carl Perkins.
Malone had a knack for dispensing just the right rhythm to really round out a song. He also devised a conga-derived hand-drumming technique and invented a clay drum called an “og”, along with a hand-held shaker consisting of metal and wood.
Notably, Malone didn’t confine his unique percussive flair to country music, either. “I need versatility and the opportunity to play many different styles,” he said in a 1985 interview with Modern Drummer magazine. “In recording, if I’m not careful, I start to feel stale, or I feel that there isn’t much room for expansion and growth.”
You can hear Malone’s work on “Drift Away” by Dobie Gray (1973). Other recordings include the Chicks’ “Sin Wagon” (1999) and “Love at the Five and Dime” by Nanci Griffith (1986).
He Always Made the Song His Priority
On two occasions early in his career, Kenny Malone paused session work and played exclusively live with a jazz quartet.
In the mid-1980s, he founded Tone Patrol with bassist Dave Pomeroy. The well-loved Nashville quintet blended jazz and world music.
After Malone’s death, Pomeroy credited him with broadening “the vocabulary of Nashville drumming.”
“He was well known for asking for a lyric sheet instead of a chord chart, and always put the song first in a way that was very special,” Pomeroy said.
Featured image by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Country Music Hall Of Fame And Museum
The post 5 Years Ago Today, We Said Goodbye to a One-of-a-Kind Drummer Who Anchored These Timeless Hits by Dolly Parton and Crystal Gayle appeared first on American Songwriter.
Author: Erinn Callahan
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