Ken Whiteley

Canada

Ken Whiteley has been playing folk, blues, gospel and other roots traditions at the highest level for well over fifty years. He has received many awards including a Canadian Folk Music Award, 7 Juno nominations, 18 Maple Blues nominations, a Genie Award (for Best Song in a Canadian Film) and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Mariposa Folk Festival, The Maple Blues Awards and Folk Music Ontario. Ultimately Ken’s music is all about making connection. He loves to get people singing with him whether he’s on a concert stage, a folk festival, a church service or a yoga ashram.

Ken has made over 35 albums. His recent recordings, “Long Time Travelling” and “So Glad I’m Here” were nominated for Canadian Folk Music Awards. “Unseen Hands - 12 Songs 12 Strings” came out in the fall of 2024 and he’s currently working on a new blues album aptly titled “Keep Going” for release later in 2025. He has written over 400 songs that have won numerous awards and been covered by more than a dozen artists. He is a powerful singer and masterful instrumentalist on 6, 12 string and resophonic slide guitars and mandolin among more than 20 instruments he plays.

Ken is a living link to the traditions of people he has sung and played with including Pete Seeger, The Georgia Sea Island Singers, Tom Paxton, John Hammond Jr., Blind John Davis and many others. He brings this vast experience to each performance as a way to allow all of us to come together through the power of song.