Biographies

BRYAN KENNEDY  |  WYNN VARBLE  |  TROY JONES

Bryan Kennedy
Chuck
Bryan was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. However, he grew up in Tennessee in the Nashville area. Early on Bryan found his gift in the form of athletics. He played all sports, but most of his accolades came in the sport of football. As a sophomore in high school he was named to the All Mid-State team. His junior and senior year he was named to the All-State team. He earned a scholarship to the University of Mississippi where he became the starting defensive end from his sophomore year through his senior year. Bryan was awarded the John Howard Vaught award of excellence his senior year. Bryan left the University of Mississippi in 1983 six hours short of his degree. Twenty years later Bryan would enroll in college once again to obtain his degree in Broadcast Journalism. Bryan graduated in the spring of 2003.

Bryan revels from a family of music industry influences. His father, Jerry Kennedy, was a pioneer in country music, while running Mercury Records – Nashville for over 20 years. While at Mercury, Jerry worked with artists such as Roger Miller, Reba McIntire, Johnny Rodriguez, the Statler Brothers, and Tom T. Hall to name a few. In addition, he also was an accomplished musician in his own right, and played on records for such artists as Bob Dylan, Ringo Star, and Roy Orbison, and Elvis Presley.

Bryan began his musical quest as a song plugger for his father, and later for Ricky Skaggs. Bryan attributes his writing know how to hearing all the great songs he got to hear daily while being a song plugger. He later struck a deal with MCA music publishing company where he would produce the first sides on Country Music Star Terri Clark. He left MCA and went to work on a farm searching for his notch in Nashville. During that period of time EMI music publishing heard Bryan’s material and offered him a writing deal. Bryan wrote for EMI for eight years.

Bryan’s brother, Gordon, is an accomplished songwriter/performer, with album cuts on some of today’s top-selling records, including Eric Clapton’s “Change the World” which won a Grammy for “Song of the Year” in 1996.

Shelby, the little brother of the Kennedy clan, has also made a mark as a key A&R man for Lyric Street records. Some of the artists  has  directed are Aaron Tippon, Rascal Flatts, and SheDaisy.  Shelby also wrote Reba McIntire's number one record "I'm a Survivor".

Bryan has written six hits that appear on numerous Garth Brooks records, including two #1 radio hits, “Beaches of Cheyenne,” and “American Honky Tonk Bar Association.” In addition, Bryan opened up for Garth Brooks performing in front of thousands of people. Bryan says that all he really did was provide back ground music for those buying T-shirts.

Some of Bryan’s other Garth Brooks cuts include “Cowboy Cadillac” “The Old Stuff”, “Rodeo or Mexico”, and “The Fever”

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Wynn Varble
Hamlet
Wynn Varble loved country music the first time he heard a Hank Williams' record. Wynn's father, Joe, had a lot of friends who played and sang. Wynn would go to these "pickins" with his father anytime that he could. One night while at Ned Smith's house Ned showed Wynn how to play "Folsom Prison Blues". Wynn was hooked. He played through the last couple of years of high school and formed a country bluegrass band with some friends. They played some local clubs and halls around Georgia.

In 1982 Wynn made his first serious trip to Nashville. He did some roofing work with his cousin, and explored the songwriting business. It was here that he met Dave Gibson, at that time a new songwriter in town, and they became friends. They wrote some together. Wynn left that autumn to go work a horse show circuit in Florida. He eventually landed some gigs there and stayed about 10 years. Meanwhile back in Nashville, his old buddy Gibson was having great success songwriting. Dave encouraged Wynn to move to Nashville permanently and he did in 1992. About a year later, Wynn signed with Starstruck Music as a songwriter.

His first radio release was "Fit To Be Tied Down" recorded by Sammy Kershaw. He had several cuts soon after by such artists as Lee Ann Womack, Trace Adkins, Gary Allen, Garth Brooks, Tracy Byrd, Darryl Worley, Montgomery Gentry, Brad Paisley among others.

In 2001, Wynn signed a recording contract with Sony Records and made an album with Anthony Martin producing. About the same time, Bryan Kennedy came to Wynn with the idea of Cod Roaster. In 2003, Wynn had a number one hit that he wrote with His friend, Darryl Worley. "Have You Forgotten", which was nominated for CMA Song of the Year. Wynn is currently performing in Toe Roaster and writing for Warner Chappell Music.

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Troy Jones
Big Daddy

Troy was born in Port St. Joe , Fla. in 1955 to hardworking parents. His father came from Georgia and worked in the paper mills and with the organized labor movement.  His mother was one of ten children who were raised on a cotton farm in Alabama .

Troy took to the guitar early, learning to play from an Ernie Ball Chord Book. His first audience was when he performed in the youth choir at church. Having a mother who believed in hard work and her children “staying busy,” some of Troy’s jobs included a paper route, cutting grass, raking yards, bagging groceries, working at a fish processing plant, painting houses, working at a furniture store, and working in a dime store for eighty cents an hour.

Troy grew up listening to Johnny Cash, Roger Miller, Merle Haggard, The Louvin brothers, George Jones, and Loretta Lynn, as well as the Happy Goodman family and the Sunday morning gospel quartet shows. His favorite was, and still is, Merle Haggard. As a kid Troy was amazed at how a man could write words like a “canvas covered wagon in a crowded labor camp.” Troy always secretly wanted to do that but didn't figure he was “smart enough."

  The music took a back-seat for a few years when Troy discovered girls and making money. In 1977, he moved to Sylacauga Alabama to work in a paper mill where he did shift work; driving a forklift or dump trucks, and working on a newsprint roll-wrapping machine.
 
At the age of thirty-four, Troy received a wake-up call when his father died of cancer. Troy realized that he wasn't going to live forever, and if he were going to do anything with music it would have to be “now or never.”  Troy began driving to Nashville from Alabama on his days off and hanging out at writer’s nights. In Nashville , he met other writers, joined the Nashville Songwriters Association, played at writer’s nights with other writers, and just got more excited about writing.

While playing in the Bluebird Cafe one night, he met a record company vice-president who gave him his phone number, saying he really liked his songs and for Troy to call him. Up until that point Troy had been struggling for a few years to get anyone to notice his songs. This particular incident started the ball rolling, and in a few weeks he had been offered a staff writing deal with Polygram Publishing Company. Troy was finally able to leave the paper mill and do something that he loved doing! He thought he’d died and gone to heaven!

The first song that Troy had recorded was “John Roland Wood,” recorded by Deryl Dodd. Since then, Troy has had the opportunity to work with many great songwriters and to meet many of his musical heroes. He now enjoys writing for Carnival Music publishing where he says, “It finally feels like a musical home.”  His latest song, "The Shade" is on the new Joe Nichols album.  In addition to his song-writing, Troy is having a ball going out on the road with his songwriting friends Bryan Kennedy and Wynn Varble; performing in the stage play “ Toe Roaster."

On a personal note, Troy ’s wife Patsy is a teacher of multi-handicapped children, and they have three great kids named Brittany, Adam, and Lindsay. He continues to live in L.A. (lower Alabama ) and commute back and forth to Nashville on a weekly basis. Troy and his family enjoy camping, going to Florida , watching the girls' high school softball games, working in the yards, cooking, and sitting on the porch!