Welcome to KentuckySings.com, where my journey of writing about music is taking the next step.

I’ve loved many styles of music for as long as I can remember. It wasn’t long after I started strumming a cheap guitar and buying records that I realized I also love to write. For reasons I will never understand, I never really pursued either until I was out of college and into a career as a minister. But in January 1985, I started getting paid to go to basketball games and write stories about them.

That little gig evolved into my present position of Sports Editor at The Anderson News, a weekly newspaper in central Kentucky. It’s been a rewarding career as I have written about everything from a champion goat roper to great high school teams to interviewing football and basketball Hall of Famers.

I was privileged to meet one of my favorite artists and a man of incredible faith, Ricky Skaggs, in the summer of 2017.

But I never really saw much of an opportunity in writing about music. Let’s just say I was terribly mistaken. And it didn’t help that by 1990, I realized I was beginning to lose my hearing. By the turn of the century, I could barely make out anything I tried to play on my guitar and listening to music was almost impossible. That changed when I received cochlear implants in 2003 and 2010. That’s another story with an incredible musical twist that I will share in a later post.

For now, though, I will just say that the wonders of technology — I DO have electronic ears — have reopened a world I love. And I see no reason to not combine my love of writing and music.

With Duane Allen of The Oak Ridge Boys at Renfro Valley, Ky., December, 2017. Duane granted an interview in 2013 and has been constantly encouraging me to pursue my dream.

I got a little bit of the itch when a local group won the Rural Gospel Quartet Contest at the Kentucky State Fair. Since we were a bit short-handed at the paper, I volunteered to write the story. A few more local and regional opportunities presented themselves before I asked for an interview with Duane Allen when the Oak Ridge Boys would be in Louisville for the Kentucky State Fair in 2013. He was extremely gracious that night, giving far more than I ever expected. Since then, I have had the privilege to interview some of the big names in gospel and country music.

And I have loved every moment of it. That’s because music is good for the soul and for me that can be playing, listening or writing. My first love is gospel, my second is country. I plan to write about both and maybe some other genres if the opportunity is there.

You see, KentuckySings.com is just a labor of love of music. I hope you join me for a journey that I believe will be a blast.

Check back often for more!

Thanks for joining me,

John Herndon