A celebration of life for Mike Kennedy is being organized this Saturday to pay tribute to a dear friend and one of Powell River’s most gifted musicians. Kennedy died suddenly of a cardiac arrest Thursday, September 26, in Edmonton, Alberta.
“This one hit me hard,” said Powell River-based blues musician Ron Campbell. “We hadn’t been playing in a band together or spent much time together recently because we were in different parts of the country, but I’d still get phone calls from him. I still felt very close to him.”
Campbell and Kennedy met in 1967 while they were in high school and formed a lifelong friendship.
“We connected well [at a young age] because of music,” said Campbell, who at the time had already been playing music professionally. “Mike was just coming up, but as soon as I heard him play I realized he had a tremendous talent.”
He said they “were inseparable” up until 1972 when Campbell married.
“Mike was the first guy who turned me on to the blues,” he said. “Both of us were crazy about the blues.”
Kennedy was well known for his blues hooks on the guitar, but the first time Campbell heard him play it was on the harmonica. “It was obvious that he knew what he was doing,” he said. “It had that great sound and blues sensibility to it.”
One of Campbell’s fondest memories of the times he spent with Kennedy is the hours listening to Muddy Waters’ Fathers and Sons and talking about it. Some of his favourite bluesmen were Otis Spann, BB King and Albert King.
Campbell said that for children growing up in the late 1960s, blues was not what most of his classmates were listening to.
“It was kind of a unique thing,” he said. “We felt like the keepers of a sacred flame. We really understood this music.”
At the time, as a somewhat established musician on the Powell River music scene, Campbell introduced Kennedy to some local musicians he knew. Soon Kennedy was playing with The Crystal Ship.
“It was a few years before Mike and I got to play together in a band, but when we did it was called the Mike Kennedy Blues Band,” he said. “It was the first band that I’d ever been in and I really felt that total adulation from the audience.”
Campbell remembers how Kennedy had a great ability to connect with listeners.
“It was really heady, intoxicating stuff just to be in a band with Mike and have that connection,” he said.
The Mike Kennedy Blues Band based in Powell River morphed into another band called Frogge and moved to Texada Island in 1971.
“These were the days we all lived together in a band house and partied and practiced together,” said Campbell.
In 1973 the band moved to Duncan and became known as The Shameless Rockers, though according to Campbell, Kennedy often referred to the band as the “fameless talkers.”
“He always had a great sense of humour, but he was a sensitive guy—kind and gentle,” he said. “A real flower child.”
After drifting apart, in the late 1970s the pair formed a three-piece band together and went down to Vancouver to record “The Powell River Song” and “Waiting for the Ferry” at Phichord Studios, where The Collectors, who would later become known as Chilliwack, recorded.
It was the last time the pair played together in a band. Kennedy moved to Alberta for work and Campbell stayed in Powell River. Kennedy would return each summer to visit family and jam with Campbell.
In Edmonton, Kennedy was involved with the country music scene and played in the Twin Creek Band and Characters. Recently, Kennedy had been working on building a custom steel guitar.
Campbell said Kennedy had a huge impact on not only him, but also on a lot of Powell River musicians. He said he has read many great Mike Kennedy stories on Facebook over the past few days.
“He was a well-loved person,” he added. “At the time he was a major personality in Powell River and a big part of what our town was about in the late 60s.”
His friends held a musical wake for him Saturday, October 5, at Carlson Community Club.
Kennedy’s celebration of life will be held at 2 pm on Saturday, October 12, at Cranberry Seniors’ Centre (6792 Cranberry Street).
