Craig Arnold came from a musical family, both his dad Kenny and his uncle Sid were musicians working in the Midlands.
His dad was known as Johnny Rivers and he fronted his own band in the early 60s working mainly in the Midlands. He shouldn’t, of course, be confused with the US singer of the same name who was also working in the 1960s. By the 1980s, Kenny Arnold had revived his career under his own name fronting a four-piece band called Ivory. Still based in the Midlands they won a number of Band of the Year awards playing mainly music from the 50s – 1980s.
Craig started his musical career at the age of 12 when he acted as roadie and occasional singer with Ivory. Quite often, as the evening progressed and Kenny began to tire, people would start shouting ‘Time to get Kenny Junior (Kenny’s son Craig) up to sing’.
Craig helped is father with Ivory for two years before joining the army in 1992. He was initially stationed in Germany but spent some time on an exchange posting to Fort Worth, Texas in the US. It is there that he was first introduced to Country music when a friend lent him a Garth Brooks album. Craig loved the way so many Country singers were also story tellers.
On his return to the UK in 1996, he joined a couple of bands as a singer, one of these was a 10-piece Commitments tribute band specialising in Atlantic soul (Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett) covers from the 1960s. Craig was the lead singer but after two years he was forced to give up singing to look after his son who was seriously ill.
After 12 years out of the music business and working as a transport manager for a shipping company, Craig’s wife Joanne knew that he missed singing and persuaded him to revive his musical career promoting his new love of Country music. He auditioned for BBC TV’s The Voice with a Garth Brooks song and made it to the last 50. This encouraged him to invest in the equipment needed to restart his musical career as a Country singer. He adopted the name Kenny Junior in memory of his late father and took to the road in 2016 as a soloist but also occasionally working with Paul Weston of The Westons’ family trio.
Kenny had only ever been a singer and didn’t play an instrument but he quickly found that as a soloist on the Country circuit he really need to so he taught himself to play rhythm guitar. He has a natural talent as a vocalist and he quickly took the circuit by storm and within his first 12 months on the road he received a CCN nomination for Newcomer of the Year in 2017.
Today Kenny works mainly as a soloist but occasionally still works in a duo with Paul Weston.
His wife Joanne runs the monthly Silver Dollar CMC at Bedworth, Warwickshire.
Craig helped is father with Ivory for two years before joining the army in 1992. He was initially stationed in Germany but spent some time on an exchange posting to Fort Worth, Texas in the US. It is there that he was first introduced to Country music when a friend lent him a Garth Brooks album. Craig loved the way so many Country singers were also story tellers.
On his return to the UK in 1996, he joined a couple of bands as a singer, one of these was a 10-piece Commitments tribute band specialising in Atlantic soul (Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett) covers from the 1960s. Craig was the lead singer but after two years he was forced to give up singing to look after his son who was seriously ill.
After 12 years out of the music business and working as a transport manager for a shipping company, Craig’s wife Joanne knew that he missed singing and persuaded him to revive his musical career promoting his new love of Country music. He auditioned for BBC TV’s The Voice with a Garth Brooks song and made it to the last 50. This encouraged him to invest in the equipment needed to restart his musical career as a Country singer. He adopted the name Kenny Junior in memory of his late father and took to the road in 2016 as a soloist but also occasionally working with Paul Weston of The Westons’ family trio.
Kenny had only ever been a singer and didn’t play an instrument but he quickly found that as a soloist on the Country circuit he really need to so he taught himself to play rhythm guitar. He has a natural talent as a vocalist and he quickly took the circuit by storm and within his first 12 months on the road he received a CCN nomination for Newcomer of the Year in 2017.
Today Kenny works mainly as a soloist but occasionally still works in a duo with Paul Weston.
His wife Joanne runs the monthly Silver Dollar CMC at Bedworth, Warwickshire.
Research by Nick Catford.