East Bank graduate country powerhouse

Abstract

"He used to tell me, 'Son, if it doesn't touch your heart and soul, then it's not worth singing or writing, and if you can't 'feel it,' how do you expect anyone else to?'

"My favorite songs are also from several genres. I suppose a short list of my all-time favorite songs would be 'Drift Away' by Dobie Gray, 'Nobody In His Right Mind' by [George Strait] and 'Wind Beneath My Wings,' which has been cut by hundreds of artists and is, in my opinion, one of the greatest love songs ever written by my dear friend, Larry Henley.

"I get up there as often as I can for a day or two," said [Donny Kees], "but more recently for longer periods due to Mom's age and health. I usually don't get up to Chesapeake but once a year or so, and East Bank High School is no longer in existence except in the memories of everyone who ever went to school there."

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Over the past 30 years, a veritable Who's Who of renowned country music singers have crooned the tunes written or co-written by one-time Chesapeake resident Donny Kees.

That litany of singing talent includes George Jones, Kenny Chesney, David Kersh, Sammy Kershaw, Neal McCoy, Reba McEntire, Ronnie Milsap, Lorrie Morgan, Eddie Raven, Johnny Rodriguez, George Strait, Aaron Tippin, Randy Travis, Tanya Tucker, Conway Twitty, Ricky Van Shelton, Brian White, Lee Ann Womack, Tammy Wynette, Diamond Rio and Joe Nichols.

Most recently, Diamond Rio and Nichols both scored chart-topping hits with Kees-penned numbers "I Believe" and "Brokenheartsville," respectively.

Recently, Kees shared with Kanawha East memories of his youth growing up in the Upper Kanawha Valley, playing his first gig in Chesapeake and attending East Bank High School in the 1960s.

Kees was born in the small mining town of Carbondale and moved with his family to Chesapeake, where valuable life lessons were learned early, he said.

"I grew up in Chesapeake in the late Fifties and Sixties," Kees said. "It was a small-town atmosphere which, at the time, was about all I knew. Back then, it was an integrated community already. Even with all the racial violence and tension of the '60s in the deep South, I never saw much of anything in Chesapeake to give anyone the sense that there was any racial troubles at all. We all played basketball, football and baseball together.

"It was only after I left Chesapeake that I started realizing there was tension in other parts of the country that were deep-rooted.

"My dad, Pete, was a musician and a singer. He taught me most of what I know now about songs and music. He had the 'soul' of a true blues singer and musician. We were listening to blues at my house from my earliest memories. I cut my musical teeth on R&B and blues. I actually hated the pop music of the Sixties. I have since learned to like some of it for its simplicity and creativity."

Kees attributes his career course and passion for music specifically to his late father's influence.

"My entire inspiration for music and songwriting is directly associated with my dad. I really never wanted to do anything else but to be involved in music. His passion for music, even though he had a regular job selling insurance by the time I was old enough to be involved, was instilled in me very early.

"He used to tell me, 'Son, if it doesn't touch your heart and soul, then it's not worth singing or writing, and if you can't 'feel it,' how do you expect anyone else to?'

"I have lived by that advice all of my musical life and I always will."

Kees made his musical stage debut in Chesapeake.

"There was a little joint in Chesapeake back in those days called Ralph's. It was the first place I ever played with my own band. When Ralph was living, I tried to get up to Chesapeake to see him and his wife, June, when I would come in from Nashville or off the road. It was quite a place, and Ralph was quite a character, but a great guy if you were on his 'good side,'" Kees recalled.

With all-class and 1960s-classes reunions of his East Bank High School classmates occurring in Charleston at the end of this month, Kees discussed some of his EBHS experiences.

"When I went to East Bank High School in 1963, it was a vibrant place with lots of 'Pioneer Pride.' The football and basketball teams were feared throughout the Kanawha Valley and beyond. Jerry West had just graduated a year or two before my coming to East Bank, and we won the football state championship, as I recall, in 1965, the year I graduated.

"I was already deeply into music when attending East Bank. All I could think of was getting out of school and 'hittin' the road'."

Actually, there was something - someone, rather - else Kees thought about during his last couple of years at East Bank High.

"I met my wife of 42-plus years, Diana, when I was a junior at East Bank. It was her 'first day' at East Bank as a brand-new sophomore.

"There was a little restaurant across from the school called the Pioneer Inn. It was so packed for lunch every day that you could barely get in and the jukebox was as loud as you could get it to play. It was a great place. It was everyone's place to be at lunch. Blacks and whites all mingled together.

"Diana walked in on her first day at East Bank, and I told my friend Georgie Kessler, who was even cooler than me back in those days, to 'look what just what walked in.'

"She was in my mind then - and still today - the prettiest girl I had ever seen. I told Georgie that I was gonna marry that girl, and I did on her last day of high school in 1966.

"We have two great boys, Brian and Pete, who are both very smart and successful, and four lovely grandchildren that Diana and I both would literally die for," said Kees.

In 1965, Kees graduated from East Bank High School and attended the University of Maryland while serving in the Air Force. During his military career, Kees served in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968.

He moved to Nashville in 1968 to pursue a songwriting career and thus began a 40-year journey that continues today in the country music industry.

In April 2000, he launched Donny Kees Entertainment in Nashville.

"I live about 30 miles outside of Nashville in a small town called Lebanon, Tenn. It is a great place to live and raise kids and grandkids.

"I work with the legendary manager of George Strait, Erv Woolsey. Erv and I have been friends for many, many years. He and I manage some acts together and I write songs for his publishing company.

"I write almost every day still. I go to the Publishing House and sit down at my keyboards and write for four to five hours a day. I am so blessed. I get to write songs with some of the greatest songwriters on Earth, whose songs that anyone whoever listened to country music would be instant favorites.

"I have been able to live and work at what I love for all of my life, and I thank God for that every day. There are always artists cutting songs here in Nashville, so I am constantly involved in new projects. I have written and still write for almost every artist that has come through Nashville in the last 30 years.

"What a gig!

"I have favorite artists in several genres of music, from B.B. King and Otis Redding to George Strait and Vern Gosdin. There are so many great artists that have come along in my life that I could not, in a short time, name them all, but everyone of them had a passion for what they sang. Everyone of them made you 'feel' their pain or joy, love and loss.

"My favorite songs are also from several genres. I suppose a short list of my all-time favorite songs would be 'Drift Away' by Dobie Gray, 'Nobody In His Right Mind' by George Strait and 'Wind Beneath My Wings,' which has been cut by hundreds of artists and is, in my opinion, one of the greatest love songs ever written by my dear friend, Larry Henley.

"There are many others that I love and cherish that have touched my life and I wish I had written," said Kees.

Family and friends, he said, keep him returning to his West Virginia home as time and his work schedule allow.

Kees' father died this past February, and his mother lives in Dunbar.

"I get up there as often as I can for a day or two," said Kees, "but more recently for longer periods due to Mom's age and health. I usually don't get up to Chesapeake but once a year or so, and East Bank High School is no longer in existence except in the memories of everyone who ever went to school there."