My First Musical Hero

Long before I got into Dylan, years before I'd heard Caedmon's Call or before the members of Nickel Creek were out of high school, my musical hero was a southern/country gospel singer named Kenny Hinson. Kenny was lead vocalist and occasional songwriter/ guitarist for the Hinsons, a quartet consisting of three brothers and one sister.

The Hinsons disbanded in the late 80s but came back for a reunion tour and new album in 1993. Shortly thereafter, Kenny, only in his fourties, was stricken with the cancer that would soon kill him.

Kenny had a rich, resonant country voice with a dynamic range. I tried and tried as a kid to mimic the sound of his delivery, to keep up with his range, to make his inflections my inflections. Thank God I finally realized that you have to develop your own style rather than ape someone else's, and that, furthermore, I don't have anywhere near that type of voice anyway. But I still have fond memories growing up in my parents house, listening to "The Lighthouse" and all those Hinson songs, and of going with my parents to see the Hinsons in concert once or twice a year.

A current southern/country gospel singer named Mike Bowling has just come out with a new Kenny Hinson tribute CD -- a collection of classic Kenny songs. Mike is probably the closest thing, vocally, to Kenny Hinson in gospel music today, although Kenny has countless imitators. It's in my CD player right now. And I am wistful. Full of wist. Positively brimming with it.