update:  It arrived! (wow fast shipping!)

MAYFIELD, KY – Mayfield’s Kevin Skinner will headline a Las Vegas show starting tonight at Planet Hollywood. Skinner won the fourth season of the TV show America’s Got Talent September 16. Other AGT contestants will also be performing at the show starring Jerry Springer, which runs through December 13.
click here for the rest of the article in the West Kentucky Star!

The values and kindnesses that Americans often associate with our small towns and rural areas are alive and well in Mayfield, Kentucky and the surrounding area. They have been present in the courtesy with which people have responded to my endless questions about a local boy, in offers of a place to stay were I ever to visit Mayfield, in suggestions of others to call, all of whom have been courteous and helpful.

However, no matter how fine the people or how beautiful the countryside, western Kentucky is no simple paradise. In the words of a Mayfield resident, “You make a pact with yourself to stay here. There are few jobs and, unless you are a professional of some sort, you will always be poor. In exchange for giving up financial security, you get to stay near your kin and feel embraced by your community,” And then she adds the final dollop of cream to the coffee, and as I listen to it float to the bottom of the mug, “You know, it’s so small a town, it’s like living in a teacup.”

In this rural area, I’m told, there are lots of young men, maybe women too, who play guitar, or bass or drums or sing and think of bigger places to play. They may make it to open mikes in Nashville, but no further and they are often discouraged, told to “get a real job,” and do. There is something in Kevin Skinner that gave him the faith in himself and the faith that he deserved more than he was getting from chicken barns and gigs at Hill’s Bar-b-que (scroll down to the forth picture to see Kevin playing at Hills Bar-b-que – http://mykevinskinner.com/gallery.html) that allowed him to file an application for America’s Got Talent.. Despite the social pressures to conform, to not dream big dreams, he found the courage to break away from the pack.

I won’t speculate on what it was until I can talk to him about it.

However, there is another story here. I’m told that seeing a Mayfield boy make good for the first time anyone remembers has been an inspiration, a reason for hope.

Guys who dreamed of writing songs when they were young have searched out their old composition books, some brown with age, once again humming a tune and writing it down. Guitar players reach to the back of the closet, open their dusty instrument cases and pick up their guitars and strum, realizing they have to get new strings, even as their blistering fingers search for chords they only dimly remember.

Kevin dared to go out into the larger world. The world he encountered had no choice but to focus not on his accent or former job, but on his openness, decency, humility and above all on his musical gift. Because of Kevin’s dare, folks have hope, some for the first time ever, and are beginning to search once again for the dreams they had never dared dream or had stored away in a locked box under the bed.

Postscript – The night Kevin won, I received a telephone call from a fellow from Kevin’s area who had given up his music several years ago. “You know,” he said, echoing what I had written in the first draft of this piece, “watching Kevin on his journey, traveling the world outside western Kentucky in search of his dream, that’s given me new hope. I hadn’t truly realized that when I stopped singing and writing songs, I gave up, not just music, but a part of my true soul. Kevin showed me that. I’ve just written the first song I’ve written in five years…”

It’s bigger than just musicians, this creation of hope, awakening of dreams. As Sharon Osborne pointed out in her interview after the finals, “Kevin is Everyman.” His journey to the fulfillment of his dreams beckons us all.

lily

copyright 2009   “to quote without permission will interfere with your karma.”

As I understand it, the two bentlemon songs on youtube were recorded the first time the little band sat down to play, and it may have existed only to record these songs. i think the fellow who played drums at the thank you concert, Brian Early, is playing drums. Kevin is singing and strumming rhythm guitar, on lead guitar is Franky James, with his improvised solo beginning 1:12 in Shattered Memories, the sound of which has always reminded me of bubbles of sunlight, but is probably the result of a neck rather than a bridge or other pickup…on That Sorrow, the same thing holds, with franky’s improvised-on-the-spot solo beginning at 2:06.   

re the name bent lemon – see jennifer’s posts

Re: Songs Kevin Has Written….
by Jen » Sun Oct 04, 2009 2:13 am

These Bent Lemon songs were recorded in Kevins living room. Who you hear playing in these videos are Kevin, Brian Earley, and Franky Langhram . Nicole, the girl in This Sorrow video is my daughter. We had alot of fun making these home-made videos…  This Sorrow happens to be my favorite song of Kevins. I thought WOW.. when he first played it to me. I think it is totally awesome!

Re: Songs Kevin Has Written….
by Jen » Sun Oct 04, 2009 11:40 pm

The name of the song he wrote for ma is “Her Stone”… I know she is looking down and smiling right now . When I look up at the stars at nite, I always know she is somewhere beyond the brightest one.
I know everyone is curious to where he got the name bent lemon. Without a doubt that is an unusual name. I remember when he told me what he was going to call his rock style… I asked where in the world did you come up with that one..(laughing wildly)… and he said…. I wanted something that noone will forget…something that will stand out… something that you dont hear everyday….and so there you have it..lol
That house we took the video in is a work in progress for me and my hubby. We both love antiques and everything old..so we are fixing it up. The main room where all the pretty woodwork is..Kevin and Kristen helped me paint. We stayed up till 3 am painting that room.. 

Yep that was me singing at the celebration. That was the biggest crowd I had ever sang in front of..and I was very nervous at the start..  I thought to myself when I looked at all the people.. uh-oh..what have I done..  but then after I started singing my nerves calmed down..lol

Wow, you really have to checkout this forum for great inside info about where some of Kevin’s older songs came from. 

http://www.mykevinskinner.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=116&p=2379&hilit=bent+lemon#p2379

http://www.mykevinskinner.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=116&p=2379&hilit=bent+lemon#p2379

Kekvin Skinner, a 35 year old singer, songwriter and guitar player, hails from Dublin Kentucky, a tiny settlement of some 200 people in western Kentucky, far away from the hills of Applachia. Dublin is some 10 miles away from Fancy Farm, Kentucky which was settled in the 1820’s by Catholics from Maryland and has both kinship and religious ties with Fancy Farm, with its 600 residents. Mayfield, the county seat, with 10,300 people at the last census, is 12 miles away.
Click here to link to the rest of it.