A few Influences....

Professional jazz composer & pianist, considered to be among the best musicians and songwriters from Savannah. Ken worked alongside such luminaries as Johnny Mercer, Glenn Miller, Kai Winding Ray McKinley & Jimmy Dorsey.

Cora Mae Bryant (May 1, 1926 – October 30, 2008) was an American blues musician. She was the daughter of another American blues musician, Curley Weaver. 

Part of her home in Oxford, Georgia, was thought of as a 'blues museum'. Her own music largely derived from the influence of attending impromptu performances and house parties, including her father, plus Blind Willie McTell, Buddy Moss, and other local blues musicians of the early 1930s.

Frank Edwards (March 20, 1909 – March 22, 2002) was an American blues guitarist, harmonica player and singer. He was variously billed as Mr. Frank, Black Frank and Mr. Cleanhead. 

Edwards was born in Washington, Georgia, United States.

He recorded for four record labels in his career; Okeh Records in 1940, Regal Records in 1949, and Trix Records in the mid-1970s. Some more recent sessions were done for the Music Maker Relief Foundation. His most noted recordings were "Three Women Blues" and "Terraplane Blues".

Frank Edwards died of a heart attack in Greenville, South Carolina, while being driven back to his Atlanta, Georgia home, after completing his final recordings at the age of 93.

Neal Pattman (January 10, 1926 – May 4, 2005) was an American electric blues  player, singer and songwriter. He is best known for his self-penned tracks, "Prison Blues" and "Goin' Back To Georgia". In the latter, and most notable stages of his long career, Pattman worked with Cootie Stark, Taj Mahal, Dave Peabody, Jimmy Rip, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Guitar Gabriel, and Lee Konitz.

             He learned harmonica playing from his father, after an accident involving a wagon wheel at the age of nine left him with only his left arm. Inspired by Sonny Terry's playing and distinctive whoops and hollers, Pattman played on the street corners of nearby Athens, Georgia. He found regular employment in the University of Georgia's kitchens, and gained further experience and local adoration for his regular live performances at various clubs and festivals. However, his more general renown was minimal until 1989, when he performed at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York.

Emma Thompson Kelly (December 17, 1918 – January 17, 2001) was an American musician. Known as the "Lady of 6,000 Songs", 

Her nickname was given to her by Johnny Mercer, who — after challenging her to play numerous songs he named — estimated she knew 6,000 songs from memory.

Beverly "Guitar" Watkins (April 6, 1939 – October 1, 2019) was an American blues guitarist. Sandra Pointer-Jones wrote, "Beverly Watkins is a pyrotechnic guitar maven whose searing, ballistic attacks on the guitar have become allegorical tales within the blues community." George Varga, reviewing her debut CD, observed that Watkins “sings and plays with enough poise and verve to make musicians half her age or younger consider alternative means of employment.

          Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several eras in the history of jazz. He received numerous accolades including the Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance for Hello, Dolly! in 1965, as well as a posthumous win for the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972, and induction into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2017. With his instantly recognizable rich, gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer and skillful improviser. He was also skilled at scat singing.                                                                     By the end of Armstrong's life, his influence had spread to popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first popular African-American entertainers to "cross over" to wide popularity with White and international audiences. He rarely publicly discussed racial issues, to the dismay of fellow African Americans, but took a well-publicized stand for desegregation in the Little Rock crisis. He was able to access the upper echelons of American society at a time when this was difficult for Black men.

Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (January 5, 1893 – June 29, 1987) was an influential American folk and blues musician. She was a self-taught left-handed guitarist who played a guitar strung for a right-handed player, but played it upside down.                                                                                                         This position meant that she would play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking". NPR stated "her influence has reverberated through the generations, permeating every genre of music."

Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass (sometimes called "Herb Alpert and the TJB") in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss. Alpert has recorded 28 albums that have landed on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, five of which became No. 1 albums; he has scored 14 platinum albums and 15 gold albums. Alpert is the only musician to hit No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 as both a vocalist ("This Guy's in Love with You", 1968) and an instrumentalist ("Rise", 1979).