Collection: Kenny Atwell "Cowboy"

At the age of eight, I wrote my first song.  At the age of fourteen, I picked up a guitar and knew that country music was my world! All of the legends from Keith Whitley to Hank Jr. to George Jones, gave me the inspiration to write the music I write today.  When I was seventeen, Harlan Howard sat me down and said, “give me 3 chords and the truth and you’ll have a country song” and that still rings as true today as the day he spoke those words.

I recorded my first album “I’m all Cowboy” when I was twenty years old. I was on my way to Lubbock, Texas when I joined up with Rick Ward, Dennis Barnes (RIP), Mike, Dana Deigado and their band Mesa. For five years, we took the west plains by storm. At twenty-three I was putting my second album together and at twenty-nine, I found myself standing on the same stage in downtown Nashville with some of the same country legends that I had grown up listening to all my life. As Porter Waggoner introduced me to the crowd, I felt liberated. I thought my dues had been paid, but easy street ain’t that easy as I would soon find out.

As things evolved the alcohol and drugs took me by storm and I thought I would never see my dreams come true. Yet, by the grace of God standing where I stand in life today, grace has blessed my presence with one more opportunity. I hope you can find one of my songs that speaks to you. God's speed!