Kenn Rowell

Kenn Rowell is the front man for the veteran indie rock band The Baghdaddios. Born in Nyack, New York he moved the band's base of operation to New York City in 2000 and continues to release albums with his group and as a solo artist. He has collaborated with seminal indie group The Bongos' former front man, Richard Barone, EMI alumna Patti Rothberg and shared stage time with such diverse talents such as steel-guitar legend Buddy Cage, Hanoi Rocks and New York Dolls' bassist Sami Yaffa and speed-metal gods Fates Warning. Rowell writes most of The Baghdaddios' songs, sings lead and plays rhythm guitar. He is credited for co-production on each of the band's releases. Starting in 1997 Rowell founded the Blank-Fest benefit concert series, which raises blankets for NYC's homeless with an annual show, held in his native Nyack within the first two weeks of December, serving as the concert's main organizer and MC. Each year, starting on Christmas Eve he and other concert volunteers distribute the blankets raised at the concert, directly to the City's less fortunate. In recent years satellite Blank-Fest concerts have been founded in Nottingham, England (UK), Toronto, Canada, Racine, WI, Northern New Jersey, the state of Florida and Richmond, VA. Sources estimate that in the 16 years since the concert series' inception that over 10,000 total donations have been raised for the homeless, spread across these multiple cities in three countries. Rowell, along with his band, The Baghdaddios, have been the subject of several music videos, including the self-produced "This Job Sucks" (2002), "Gutwrench" (2006), by alternative video and media director Kroy Aziani, "Reject" (2012) by Gary Weber and solo videos "How Low" and "Noodle" (both 2007), both directed by NYC-based film director Art Leal and the panoramic "This Old Soul" (2011), directed by Spanish-born filmmaker Wilhelm Scholz. His caricature was featured in the animated music video for The Baghdaddios "Christmas At C.B.G.B.s" (2004), which has enjoyed extensive underground and Internet exposure for the last several Holiday Seasons. Currently (2015), Rowell is producing his first solo album, tentatively titled "Instant Solo Album", scheduled for release in early 2015. In addition to several music videos that are also scheduled for release at the same time, the album will be produced by Todd Tobias (Guided By Voices, Bob Pollard, George Griggs) and will feature more acoustic and musically scaled-down tunes as a marked contrast to earlier Baghdaddios releases, which featured more of an old-school punk aesthetic.