Ken Atkins & The Honky Tonk Kind is about Twang Music - The Honky Tonk
variety, ....dang straight country, pure and simple.  When they’re not playing
their own originals you can expect to hear plenty of good stuff from the likes
of Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, George Jones, Ernest Tubbs, Bob Wills,
Ted Daffan, Gene Watson, Dale Watson, Charlie Pride, Merle Haggard,
Buck Owens, The Delmore Bros. and, well, you get the picture.
They describe their sound as a cross between Bakersfield, Austin,
and Nashville (when they're behavin').
Current Line up:
Ken Atkins - singer/songwriter, guitar; Tom Trombley - drums, backing vocals
To Benoit - Bass; Paul A. Davis - Harmonica; Sue Mackay - accordian

In 2001 Ken Atkins received the Traditional Male Vocalist award from
the Rhode Island Country Horizons organization and subsequently
took the band to Pigeon Forge and Knoxville Tennesee including playing at the
Louise Mandrell Theater, and playing live on the radio on one of the foremost
Americana stations - WDRX FM (in the little trailer) in Knoxville, TN.
They’ve played numerous county fairs honky tonks from Austin to Boston.
Their new CD is “She’s Not Comin’ Back"
 

Highlights.
Career highlights also include a tour with James ‘Slim’ Hand (10+ dates) and
opening for Eilen Jewel on 4 different occasions.  High on the band’s list is also
the fact they play occasionally at the great ‘Ginny’s Little Long Horn’ in Austin, Texas

A Brief history.

1980-1990. I formed a punk rock/new wave band called Newjohnny5.  We had a good ten year run in the
80's. We put out a number of releases on our own record label.  We played many gigs in venues ranging from
1000 to 4500 capacities.  Our biggest gigs was at the Hartford Civic Center in front of 14,000 people when we
opened for Culture Club.  We opened for many big acts in the 80's.  We received quite a bit of radio airplay on
both college and commercial stations including 99.1 WPLR in New Haven and WCCC in Hartford.

To make a long story short we played many nights and in the wee morning hours driving home after those gigs
I would tune into the Nashville Gold syndicated type radio show that would typically be on in the overnites.

That's how I fell in love with country music.

By about 1991 I was looking for something new and traditional country was it.  I got together with Paul Brockett
and we started a little band called Four Mile River.  About this time steel guitar great Buddy Cage drifted into
town and joined up with us.  Our first gig was opening for The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band at the Garde Theater
in New London.

See ya soon. - Ken