Heading North on I-95 a few years ago, Rob Kenna spotted a road sign that read: Vero Beach – 6 miles. Completely unfamiliar with the town and area, he can’t say for sure why he felt so strongly inclined to take the exit. He just had a feeling and he had to follow his gut. He turned off the highway onto Route 60 and soon found himself at the beach off Ocean Drive.
Affable and outgoing, Kenna immediately found the equally friendly people, tropical climate and stunning natural beauty of Vero too hard to resist and impossible to leave.
Since then, Kenna has been composing and performing original songs, making life-long friendships in Vero and restoring a lake-house and property west of town. He is now embarking on a two-month singing engagement at Havana Nights he’s billing as “Love, Life & Everything In Between.”
Finding his passion for music later in life, Kenna spent his formative years in Sydney, Australia, writing poetry.
“My first experience with learning music and actually performing when I was young was when I tried out for musicals and I really only did that to meet girls,” Kenna jokes.
Recalling his roles in musical theater and productions like “Pajama Game,” Kenna was just beginning to explore his counter-tenor voice and his affinity for performing, but his responsibilities as a father to two small boys took precedence.
He chose to put his artistic aspirations on hold and focus his energies on providing for his family. He found a career as a police officer and joined the New South Wales Police Force. Fate intervened several years later, however, when Kenna endured a terrifying and debilitating machete attack while on duty.
“My skull had been fractured, shoulder dislocated and my face and eyelid were severely injured. I had a very intense rehabilitation period which spanned the course of two years.”
Placed on medical leave, Kenna physically and spiritually returned to music during the challenging time, discovering his love and talent for piano, guitar and harmonica.
“Playing music was incredibly therapeutic for me and profoundly healing,” Kenna recalls. It was during this time that Kenna realized the poetry he had been writing all those years was actually lyrics to songs he had yet to compose and, following his gut once more, he enrolled in music and voice lessons at a private music school in Sydney.
Once fully recuperated, Kenna went back to school full-time at Australian Catholic University and earned his degree in Elementary Education Instruction with a concentration in Creative Arts. He enjoyed working with children and using his songs and music to teach. He also began branching out and testing the waters of performing, and was signed by an Australian talent agency specializing in corporate bookings and events.
“I started getting gigs to play and to do celebrity look-alikes and impersonations,” Kenna says of his foray into this new industry, and, throwing on a pair of Ray Ban Wayfarer sunglasses, proved he can still pull off a darn good Jack Nicholson.
His musical performances and agency gigs led to more opportunities on larger stages. He played the City Festival in Sydney to a crowd of 10,000, appeared on national TV in Australia and broke records on the country’s version of “Star Search,” he says.
His songwriting has proved to be the most rewarding of his efforts, both personally and professionally. Kenna calls his mainly acoustic music “urban soul,” and named James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, and Harry Chapin as large influences in his descriptive lyric-writing and folk-tinged arrangements.
“I’ve always loved the harmonies and storytelling of groups like The Doobie Brothers, The Eagles, and America,” Kenna says. “Most of the songs I write are based on true stories – real people and places and things that have happened to me. I offer something different than the musicians who play covers only.”
Kenna’s repertoire of originals includes lyrical love songs, upbeat rock rhythms and irreverent, comical numbers. His years of vocal training and music theory shine through as he seamlessly changes his range, tone and style to suit the song and instrument he is playing.
“My shows have a great variety, especially because I go back and forth between playing piano, singing with guitar, and then picking up the harmonica.”
Kenna paints his musical pictures with a 12-string, semi-acoustic guitar from Australian instrument-maker Cole Clark, along with a Takamine 6-string guitar and his Hohner Harmonica. Percussionist, conga and bongo-player Cindy Hudson sometimes accompanies Kenna for his appearances at Vero’s Downtown Friday Band Breaks. Mostly, though, Kenna performs solo for local private parties and weddings. Kenna was recently featured on the Happy Yappy Hour on 107.9 FM and has donated his talents for the local organization Blue Ribbon Charities. He promotes his original songs and performances through his Facebook page, “robkmusic,” and the positive word-of-mouth from his fans in Vero and beyond.
When Kenna is not composing or performing, he is keeping himself busy restoring his lakeside home. He spotted it while visiting a good friend who lives nearby.
“I saw it across the lake and had one of those gut feelings again,” Kenna laughs. “And once I saw the buildings, which were in serious need of repair, I immediately saw past all that and was able to visualize exactly what I would do with it if I could. And now I’m doing it.”
Kenna himself has restored the grounds, cultivating gardens of fruit trees, and carving paths to vantage points and quiet spots he has formed with hedges and indigenous plantings.
He has transformed the dilapidated carport into a sun-filled, lake-front music studio and man-cave, replete with plush seating, flat-screen TV, guitars, amps, and decorated with photos of his family, travels and musical adventures.
“I’ve met some very artistic, interesting and kind people here in Vero. And now finding this place, bringing it back to life and making it my own, it’s really fantastic for creative people like me,” Kenna says.
Kenna will be performing at the Caribbean Court Hotel’s piano bar Havana Nights each Friday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. starting in December and running through January.
