Kellen Bassette purchased his first guitar from a pawnshop at age 18. Shortly after, he founded Jericho Hill with a couple of friends. The band performed Kellen's original music and covers from the likes of Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Drive-By-Truckers, and Social Distortion.
Despite being untrained novice musicians, the trio won a battle-of-the-bands and was interviewed and received airplay on K Rock, the modern rock station out of Syracuse, NY. They recorded a full-length punk-flavored album of rock and roll and alt-country titled "Young, Angry, and Poor". Jericho Hill was active on the Oswego County music scene from 2001 until 2005, when Kellen moved to the New Orleans area. That year, Bassette brought his band down to Hammond, LA, to record their second album, "Sons of Anarchy", released three years before the TV series of the same name.
In 2006, the prolific songwriter recorded his first solo album titled "To Whom It May Concern". That fall he returned to Oswego, NY, where he recorded and performed solo while also playing in an acoustic duo with longtime friend, busking partner, and fellow singer/songwriter Buddy Cottom. Cottom, now a fixture on the Pensacola music scene, was briefly backed by Bassette on lead guitar in a band called Route 4.
These days, Kellen can be found playing lead guitar in his rock and roll cover band The Condescenders and performing his original music with an acoustic guitar and gritty baritone across northern and central New York, or hanging out in rural northwest Thailand where he trains Muay Thai and experiments on whatever instrument he gets his hands on.
Kellen Bassette
