Les Kerr: About Les

Les blends musical influences to create his signature "Hillbilly Blues Caribbean Rock & Roll."

Les Kerr is a songwriter, recording artist and performer who brings blues, Rockabilly, New Orleans music, Zydeco, and bluegrass together to create his “Hillbilly Blues Caribbean Rock & Roll.” Now based in Nashville, Kerr was born in Louisiana and raised in Mississippi in Jackson and the Gulf Coast city of Pascagoula.

Kerr’s concert highlights include headlining annual Mardi Gras concerts at Nashville’s Bluebird Café since 1992. His New Orleans venues have included the Maple Leaf Bar, Carrollton Station, Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Café, and Neutral Grounds. He has also performed at the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Jefferson Street Jazz and Blues Festival and at Nashville’s official Independence Day celebrations in 2000 and 2008. Other venues include the Franklin (TN) Jazz Festival, Huntsville, Alabama’s Panoply Festival and Jackson, Tennessee’s Rockabilly Fest. Kerr’s live performances have pleased audiences from Mississippi to Michigan.

New Orleans Set is the latest of Kerr’s six CDs. His previous albums include Crawfish Caravan, Christmas on the Coast, Red Blues, Southern Sound Sessions and Below the Level of the Sea.

Photo: Alan Whitman

A three-time nominee for Music City Blues Society awards, Kerr has been nominated for the society’s Male Vocalist of the Year, CD of the Year and Entertainer of the Year awards. His song Mackinac Blues was included in NPR’s All Songs Considered in 2005. With Bryan Cumming, he has written songs officially adopted as theme songs for the University of Mississippi’s $200 Million “MomentUM” campaign (For the Love of Ole Miss) and the Cookeville-Putnam County Chamber of Commerce $2 million economic and tourism “Highlands of Tennessee” campaign (Highlands of Tennessee).

Also a journalist, Kerr co-authored The All-American Truck Stop Cookbook with Ken Beck and Jim Clark and frequently writes for magazines and newspapers. Tennessee, published in 2004 by Graphic Arts Center Publishing, features Kerr’s words and photos by George Humphries. He also contributed to The Bluebird Café Scrapbook with an essay about his Mardi Gras concerts and a recipe for pralines.

His review of the book How Nashville Became Music City U.S.A. appeared in the nationally recognized music magazine PASTE and he continues to contribute to other magazines and newspapers.

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