Ron Kenoly God Is Able Songs

[Yamila Comejo]

He's today a praise and worship leader whose albums sell more, manymore, than Graham Kendrick and whose current album 'God Is Able' hasmade number one on America's Christian music chart outselling DC Talk,Michael W Smith et al. He has almost single handedly brought the fireof R&B rhythm and the call and response fervour of black churchinto the polite, MOR world of white praise and worship. Ron Kenoly, making alightning visit to London for a hastily arranged praise concert at theKensington Temple, gave me a warm welcome when I met thesinger/worship leader, his wife Tavita and a few of his record companyexecs. After exchanging pleasantries in the hotel lobby, we headed forthe Ganges Indian restaurant, where, while waiting to be served andwhile eating, we discussed everything from the idiosyncrasies of theAmerican CCM scene to how ridiculous Carl Lewis looks in high heeledshoes in those billboards. My first impression of him was that Ron Kenoly lookedremarkably good for his age (he'll be 50 this year) and both he andTavita were both warm and friendly.

Ron was born in Coffeyville, Kansas, the third of six sons, in whatwas, to all intents and purposes, a single parent family (as he tellsthe audience on his new album, "We had a non-resident father"). Theirfather, an Air Force sergeant, was hardly ever at home and theirmother used to take the whole family to the Union Baptist Church everySunday. It was in this church that Ron gave his life to Christ at avery early age and started singing. As he grew up, so did his musicalaspirations and at 18, after graduating from high school, he lefthome, and headed for Oklahoma en route to California. However, hishopes of hitting the big time were not realised and he followed hisfather's footsteps into the Air Force. This was to be a life-changingstep for him in more ways than one, as it was here that he met thepretty Puerto Rican lady who would later become his wife.

"I met Tavita through some mutual friends," Ron explained. "We wereboth in the Force at the time. It was the kind of thing where thefirst night I met her, I knew I wanted her to be my girl and I toldher I was going to marry her. She didn't like me at first; she had alot of preconceived ideas about me. I was in a nightclub band calledthe Mellow Fellows and was pretty popular around the base. She justthought I was another playboy, or something. But then she found I wasnicer," added Ron, laughing.

Tavita, like Ron, also sang and so they toured together for a while,at the same time building up their relationship. A year later theymarried and in October of 1968 Ron left the service. Once again withhis eyes on the show business big time, he, Tavita and their first sonTony moved to Los Angeles.

This time around, Ron met with more success than his previous attempt.He landed a contract with a company called Audio Arts, singing ondemos of compositions by songwriter Jim Webb ("By The Time I Get ToPhoenix"). This led to other recording deals with MCA, United Artists,Warner Bros and A&M. Although there were no major hits, Ron earnedthe respect of the music industry and made enough money to give hisfamily a reasonably good lifestyle. But if career wise things werelooking up, at home it was exactly the opposite. The marriagedeteriorated over a seven year period, until one day in 1975, whenTavita, who, like Ron, had accepted Christ at a very early age butleft it all behind as she grew up, went to a Foursquare church in LAand rededicated her life to Christ. Ron followed in November of thatyear, quit his lucrative nightclub act and moved his family toOakland. "We've looked back a few times, but never did go back," Ronsaid of that crisis point in his marriage. "We've had some serious upsand downs in our marriage, but thank God, he's been able to heal ourrelationship. To stay married 26 years in California is quite a feat.We're not a model family, but we're a family that loves the Lord, andChrist is the centre of our home and has been the anchor of ourrelationship."

Ron and Tavita have THREE sons, and all three of the Kenoly boys haveinherited their parents' musical talent. "They all write songs, playinstruments and sing," said Ron. "At first I tried to push them intoit, but since the younger two were in their mid teens, they've bothstarted singing and they just don't stop. And I'm not just saying thisbecause I'm their dad, but they're good! The younger ones are reallyinto manic music; rap and hip hop. When I wrote the "God Is Able" rap,they said it was alright for a parent! They tell me that I'm theirfavourite singer, which means a lot to me. My two younger brothers arealso in music - one in Christian music and one in secular - and myboys have learned a lot from Mark (the brother in Christian music) aswell."

After giving up singing in nightclubs, Ron worked for a while as alocker room attendant at the College Of Alameda, where he attendedevening classes, working towards a music degree. He had been doingthis for 18 months when he was scheduled to have a review with theDean of the college, who was surprised to learn about his previousrecording career and track record. The Dean got him to prepare a fullCV, which was presented to the board of Regents, and Ron was issuedwith the equivalent of a Masters' degree and a teaching license andhired by the college as a vocal tutor.

Singing professionally was still the desire of Ron's heart, only nowhe turned his attention to the CCM industry, who, to coin a phrase,didn't want to know. Several demos were sent out to the variousChristian labels, without so much as a standard "Thanks, but nothanks" letter in return while offers from nightclubs and secularrecord companies were still coming in. Things reached a critical pointin 1982 and one summer evening a distraught Ron sat at the piano inhis local church and after playing and singing for a while, gave uphis dream of being a professional singer. Almost immediately, thesituation began to change.

A series of invitations to lead the worship at different crusades andother functions led to a full time appointment at the JubileeChristian Centre in San Jose, California. Don Moen, vice president ofIntegrity Music, visited Jubilee one day, saw Ron in action and therest is history - well, almost.

"For the first two recordings I did with Integrity, I didn't have aformal agreement at all," said Ron. "It was just an agreement to doanother worship tape. We recorded 'Jesus Is Alive' in 1990. Then DonMoen came to Jubilee and decided to record the worship as we had it,which became 'Lift Him Up'. It was after the bonafide success of 'LiftHim Up' (which has spent a staggering 70 plus weeks on Billboard'sContemporary Christian chart) that we signed a formal recordingcontract." The first recording under that contract is the new album,'God Is Able'.

Tom Brooks, senior producer for Integrity Music, is the man with thejob of selecting the songs for Ron's albums, as well as the musicianswho play on them. "Tom has been involved in at least 50 of theIntegrity worship projects," Ron explained. "I think it's incrediblethe way he can recognise a flow as he's designing and arranging." Thebacking band members on Ron's albums all come with impeccablecredentials, not only from the CCM scene but also the mainstream, withpeople such as drummer Chester Thompson (Genesis, the Bee Gees),bassist Abraham Laboriel (Koinonia and just about everyone you canthink of), percussionist Alex Acuna (see 'Abraham Laboriel') andwoodwind player Justo Almario (ditto). "I didn't choose them," saidRon, "but if it was up to me I would have." Indeed, they areresponsible for some of the truly memorable bits of the recordings,like Abraham's unscripted bass solos, or the awesome drumming in "TheBattle Is The Lord's" on the new album.

Of course, the success of 'Lift Him Up' has pushed Ron into the publiceye now more than ever. Or, as he puts it, "now we live in a glasshouse. I'm comfortable with it, but it creates a lot more challenges.I don't think there's any artist - Christian or otherwise - whodoesn't dream of success and this kind of response from the generalpublic. I think it's good in that I'm realising the desire of myheart, to do what I feel I was put on this planet to do, which is tolead people into an awareness of the presence of God." And althoughhe's now one of its hottest properties, Ron tends to shy away from thewhole CCM scene ("I'm not into the Nashville thing," he said).

When asked who his favourite singers were, his reply was, "You mightnot know them - they don't have recording contracts or largefollowings, but I know them. I know their hearts and when they sing,it touches me because I know where they're coming from. People likeFerris Hill - he's a young man who goes around singing in schoolsacross the US and he's almost like the Pied Piper. He draws the kidsto a neutral place on weekends and leads hundreds of them to the Lord.Those are the kind of people who are my favourites.

My brother Mark is another. But I know what you were trying to get outof me. As I was growing up the two main people that I listened to wereNat King Cole and Sammy Davis Jr. When I was growing up - this was inthe mid 50s - they were two black people who came on TV on a regularbasis who weren't in some type of stereotypical role. They weretalented and their gifts spoke for themselves. As a child I knew thatwas how I wanted to be."

One thing Ron does have in common with his boyhood heroes is the wayhis music, like theirs, crosses racial barriers. "I don't have anexplanation for it," said Ron. "I guess it has a lot to do with thefact that in my whole career, I've never been a 'black only' singer.Even as a nightclub singer, it's always been a mixed audience. I'venever tried to design it that way - no, I take that back. While I wasa secular singer, just to keep working I kept an integrated band,because there were a lot of clubs in those days where an all blackband just wouldn't be allowed to play, regardless of how good theywere. But that was then. Now, this whole thing was born out of amulti-racial congregation. Jubilee is about 45 to 50 per centCaucasian, probably about 25 per cent African American and the rest isHispanic and Asian. Somehow, we're able to present ministry thattouches the lives and hearts of all those people -currently about7,000 - in the 12 years I've been there, lift Him Up' was recorded ina similar environment and through it, people have come to realise thatworship has no colour, age, ethnic or cultural barriers. Just likevideo has broken down a lot of taboos in worship, which is good,because although we've done lots of things to break down barriers,Sunday mornings between 8 and 12 is still the most segregated time inAmerica. This video has helped pull down a lot of barriers and break alot of stereotypes."

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