One of the strongest modern proponents of R&B-drenched Baton Rouge swamp blues, Kenny Neal is a second-generation southern Louisiana-based guitarist, harmonica player, singer, and songwriter. After making his debut with 1987's independently issued Bio on the Bayou, his reputation expanded after signing with Alligator Records for Big News from Baton Rouge!! His incendiary live shows resulted in sold-out solo gigs and festival appearances. He signed to Telarc for 1998's Blues Fallin' Down Like Rain, and left after 2001's One Step Closer, to return to Alligator with 2004's Double Take. In 2008, he released Let Life Flow on Blind Pig; it peaked at eight on the Blues charts. Neal delivered the Grammy-nominated Bloodline in 2016. He signed with Ruf Records for 2022's Straight from the Heart.

Neal was born on October 14, 1957 in New Orleans. His dad, harpist Raful Neal, was a Baton Rouge blues mainstay whose pals included Buddy Guy and Slim Harpo (the latter gave three-year-old Kenny his first harmonica). At age 13, Neal was playing in his father's band, and he picked up a bass at 17 for Buddy Guy.

The guitarist recruited some of his talented siblings to form the Neal Brothers Blues Band up in Toronto (brother Noel later played bass behind James Cotton; five other Neal brothers also play in various bands) before returning stateside. In 1987, Kenny Neal cut his debut LP for Florida producer Bob Greelee, an updated swamp feast initially released by Kingsnake Records as Bio on the Bayou. The following year, Alligator Records signed Neal and reissued the debut under the title Big News from Baton Rouge!! Young Neal was on his way.

Neal's sizzling guitar work, sturdy harp, and gravelly, aged-beyond-his-years vocals served him well, and he cut four albums for Alligator between 1989 and 1994. An acclaimed 1991 stint on Broadway in a production of Mule Bone found him performing acoustic versions of Langston Hughes' poetry set to music by Taj Mahal. In 1998, Neal moved from Alligator to the blues division of the jazz-based Telarc Records, releasing three albums for the label: Blues Fallin' Down Like Rain (1998), What You Got (2000), and One Step Closer (2001).

During the new millennium, Neal recorded sets for a variety of independent labels, including Easy Meeting (a 2003 collaboration with Billy Branch), 2004's incendiary Double Take (a one-shot return to Alligator), and 2005's globally acclaimed A Tribute to Slim Harpo and Raful Neal (True Life Entertainment).

Three years later, Neal hooked up with Blind Pig and released Let Life Flow in 2008, once again incorporating his gritty Louisiana roots with a sophisticated Chicago/Memphis soul approach. The album was his first to make the national blues charts, peaking at number eight and remaining there for six weeks. A second Blind Pig release, Hooked on Your Love, appeared in 2010. He issued the self-titled Kenny Neal His Mississippi Saxophone on his own Booga Music label in 2011, followed by the retrospective Favorites in 2012.

In 2015, Neal released his first holiday-themed album, I'll Be Home for Christmas for Cleopatra. The label also issued the Grammy nominated Bloodline in 2016. Munck Music released Live at Jazzfest 2018. The following year he signed to Ruf Records and took part in the start-studded sessions for The Soul of the King by the tribute B.B. King Blues Band, alongside guests Taj Mahal, Joe Louis Walker, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Michael Lee. In May 2022, Neal issued his solo debut for the label, Straight from the Heart. ~ Al Campbell & Thom Jurek, Rovi