Kendall Payne and Seven Clans

Kendall Payne was born December 17, 1968 in Anderson, SC. But was raised just across the state line in Hart County GA. From an early age Kendall showed a great deal of interest in music. He began piano lessons at age 10 but never could learn to read music. At age 11 he decided piano wasn't the instrument for him, so for his 12th birthday his mother bought him a guitar for his birthday and Christmas combined. Kendall learned to play and at age 19 wrote his first song. He performed with a country band but turned completely to bluegrass in 1991. When he began performing with the Shoal Creek house band. He performed with various bluegrass groups , then Kendall formed his debut group The Georgia Ramblers in 1993. The group performed together until the spring of 1997, when Kendall decided to take a break and reconnect himself to his true musical self. During one of his last perfomances with the Georgia Ramblers at Shoal Creek Music Park, he met Sharon Smith.
After a 5 month courtship Kendall and Sharon was married on October 4, 1997. During this time Kendall became a Christian and settled into family life. Although not abandoning music completely, he still wrote on occasion and before long organized a group with his sisters in laws. The group performed at churches and benefits. In 2005, Kendall's health began to fail and he had to retire from his job. Frustrated with not being able to work, Kendall began to see the blessing in disguise. He began to write songs again seriously and the desire to perform again filled him like never before. Today Kendall is performing a mixture of bluegrass, country, blues and gospel. And with the forming of Seven Clans, Kendall is perfecting his own unique sound . Kendall says the group is still a work in progress but that things are coming together. Kendall is working on his first record project of original and cover tunes, hopefully to be released sometime in mid 2008.