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author: Pete Barbeck, SOUTHWESTBLUES MAGAZINE
El Paso native, Kenny Palyola, is a busy man these days. Based out of Austin and promoting The Real Thing along the Gulf Coast, New Mexico and in Austin, he demonstrates a knowledge of several blues styles. As a blues artist who is self-produced and self-promoted, Kenny Palyola has a full schedule keeping himself and his band working as many as six nights a week. Through the course of The Real Thing, a number of grooves from New Orleans shuffles, Texas blues, rock and straight up blues are showcased, and all his hard work seems to pay off. Starting off with a slinky, jazzy cut, "Candy Canes" brings to mind smoke filled jazz bars, with patrons sipping drinks and soaking up the atmosphere. "Lesser Evil" has a New Orleans shuffle groove, similar to "Hand Jive", bringing things up a notch. "R.H.G.E.C.W." (red headed green eyed Cajun woman) is another variation on a Cajun shuffle, with harp and guitar weaving in and out of each other to a solid conga groove. The title cut "The Real Thing", is a stripped down blues number with just harp and guitar for accompaniment. "The Real Thing" segues directly into "Milkfed", with the same sound, style, and production; they are really like one song with two sets of lyrics. One of the strongest cuts on The Real Thing is a live version of Jim Hendrix' "Fire", titled "Phire-live '01". The groove is slowed down, funked up, and is a good live recording. It is a good indicator of Kenny Palyola's live strengths and is a good version of a classic rock song. Production on The Real Thing is not the best, and a little muddy in spots, mainly on the vocals. But being self-produced, that is sometimes to be expected. It suggests to me that Kenny Palyola's music is best taken in live performance, and chances are good that he'll be jamming somewhere near your city soon. The Real Thing is definitely different from most blues releases and is a snapshot of a young blues performer caught while his music is still evolving. - Pete "Bootlegger" Barbeck
- Southwest Blues Magazine
Discography
Find our CDs on CDbaby, also find our songs available for download
thruout the internet. Just enter "Kenny Palyola" in a search.
Photos
Bio
Vocalist and frontman Kenny Palyola was raised
in El Paso Texas, riding horses and dirtbikes and listening to latin music as well
as the 60s and 70s rock of rock trios like Cream,
Hendrix and the rock blues of The Stones and
Led Zeppelin. Currently, the band offers covers
as well as original music which blends in nicely together.
He moved to Houston and immediately sought out the blues scene
in this historical blues city.
Kenny has led his band thruout Texas' top venues
like The Saxon Pub in Austin,
JnJs Blues Bar in Ft Worth
and Dan Electros Guitar Bar in Houston and has
shared the stage in Austin with James Cotton,
Paul Byrd in Ft Worth and many more.
Kenny has performed over 2000 shows in 10 years.
The band is tight and ready and can perform a very
dynamic rock and blues show and have over 4
hours of music prepared for an exciting live show.
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