It’s rare, even locally, that someone in their 40s bursts onto the music scene, but Kenny Tagavilla is the exception.
The 44-year-old Kona native and Hilo High School alum is a successful independent local trucker by day. He’s played in cover bands for the past couple of decades and also plays music for the choir and congregation at Kona Baptist Church — an experience which, as a man of faith, he cherishes.
But the father of two grown children, daughter Tianny and son Koa, and proud grandfather of 5-month-old granddaughter Paizley, gained recognition at a whole new level in 2022, when he released an EP with the songs “Crusin’,” “Sail On” and “Drift Away.”
“Crusin’,” with its infectious reggae backbeat and sweet harmonica fills, earned Tagavilla Na Hoku Hanohano nominations last year for Most Promising Artist of the Year and Favorite Entertainer of the Year, the latter a fan vote. He didn’t collect a coveted statuette, but he did attend last year’s awards ceremony at the Hawaii Theatre in Honolulu.
“Being a country boy from the Big Island, I was a little bit astonished,” Tagavilla said. “I was, like, ‘Man, I’m here, and I’m in the company of all these people that I’ve thought of so highly and I’ve seen on TV and heard on radio since I was a kid.’ But once I got in there and I was shaking hands and talking to them, and they were just like me, I respected them even more.
“It was a really, really cool experience.”
That was merely a taste of what was to come. Tagavilla’s freshman album, “Kona Grown,” has earned the entertainer known as “Kenny T” seven Na Hoku nominations: Album of the Year, an award that would be shared with producer Kapena De Lima; Male Vocalist of the Year; Music Video of the Year for the title track; Christmas Single of the Year for “O Holy Night”; Favorite Entertainer fan vote again; and General Engineering Award for De Lima.
The plethora of nominations, Tagavilla said, “feels really good.”
“You feel honored, and it’s like, wow,” he said. “You see all these familiar names, and mine is next to them on the ballot.”
This year’s Na Hoku Hanohano Awards ceremony will be Aug. 3 at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu.
Music is a family affair for Tagavilla, as his 19-year-old son Koa — whom Tagavilla describes as “a really talented multi-instrumentalist” — provides bass and backing vocals, while his wife, Tia, is the band’s manager.
Tagavilla, whose baritone voice would sound at home in Nashville, got to stretch out with his first full-length album. The title track, a country ballad complete with steel guitar, spent several weeks atop KWXX-FM’s “Top 5 at 5” and the “Kona Grown” video is a feast for the eyes as well as the ears, with nice slices of Kona life.
“We just wanted to show Kona like it is: coffee, farming, trucking, fishing — and some of the people in our town, regular everyday people who work hard and love their families,” he said. “There’s flashbacks to the older and younger version of my son growing up, and we showcase some of the people who make Kona what it is, like Aunty Doris from Doris Place store who’s 93 years old and a pillar of our community.”
Other faves on the album include a reggae version of the Journey hit “Faithfully,” the cleverly titled “Wishin’ I Was Fishin’” and the gospel standard “Old Rugged Cross.”
Tagavilla also has released a new single, “Asphalt Cowboy,” which was featured recently when he was interviewed on a Las Vegas-based podcast.
“It’s a song about my life,” he said. “I’ve got to get up early and go out and provide for my family. I grew up a trucker. It’s who I am.”
Tagavilla will play Sunday at the South Kona Summer Jam, sharing the bill with the legendary Hawaiian trio The Makaha Sons — another feather in the cap of the unassuming family man turned frontman.
“I just play my music, and I’m grateful that people have gotten behind it so much,” he said. “I didn’t really think I was an entertainer until a few years ago, as I became more mature and secure in who I am. We go through hurt, we go through loss, but we have faith, we have joy, we have victories, and we have our friends and our families, the people who love us and support us and make us who we are. We’ve got all these memories in our lives.
“And it all goes into the music.”
The benefit concert for the Kona Hongwanji Buddhist Temple is at 5 p.m. at the temple’ s Social Hall, 81-6630 Mamalahoa Highway in Kealakekua. Doors open at 4:30 p.m.
Advance tickets, available now at the temple’s office are $45. Admission at the door is $55. Tickets also include dinner, a special pop-up by Kona Grill House proprietor Bryan Fujikawa.
For more information about the event and the Kona Hongwanji, which has served the West Hawaii community for more than 125 years, visit konahongwanji.org. For more information about Kenny T’s music, go to kennytagavilla.com.
Email John Burnett at hawaiitribune-herald.com.
