Kenny Sears

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Kenny Sears - Kenny Sears was born in Denison, Texas and raised on a farm in Liberty, Oklahoma. He purchased his first fiddle when he was seven with money earned picking cotton and turned professional when he was 11 after he was invited to join the staff band of the Big D Jamboree in Dallas. This gave him the opportunity to work with Grand Ole Opry artists who routinely played the Jamboree. Another contact young Sears made there was Billy Gray, Hank Thompson’s former bandleader. When the Big D Jamboree closed down, Gray asked Sears to join his troupe. Sears recalls it as a great training ground in swing and country music. But he had another musical life as well. Since the fourth grade, he had been playing classical violin with the Austin College Symphony. This gig netted him a scholarship to North Texas State University and the chance to study music in depth. He subsequently played in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Sears moved to Nashville in 1975 and in the years that followed toured with Mel Tillis, Ray Price, Faron Young and Dottie West, among others, worked in Ralph Emery’s staff band and the Grand Ole Opry band and established the reputation he still holds as one of Nashville’s most revered session players.

Kenny Sears was inducted into The National Fiddler Hall of Fame in 2017.