Kingsley Durant, guitarist and guitar aficionado, creates accessible, vibe-driven instrumental music that appeals not only to guitar fans, but music fans.

His music is easy to listen to without being in any way “easy listening” and he has collaborated with musicians such as Steve Hunt, Roscoe Beck, Tom Brechtlein, Eric Johnson, and Viktor Krauss to bring his well-crafted original compositions to life.

Kingsley grew up in a musical family playing piano, French horn, and guitar, but music was not quite his calling yet for he actually went on to teach math after his college years. After some recent years of focusing on life and playing acoustic guitar something changed. While out in California for his granddaughter’s birth the electric itch returned. Less than a month later Kingsley Durant had 8 new tracks ready for his brand new album, >Convertible (due out January 10th, 2024).

1. Convertible (4:51)
2. Cobblestones (5:35)
3. Vivi’s Bounce (5:50)
4. Akiko (6:39)
5. Funky Princess (with Eric Johnson) (5:14)
6. Alice (2:33)
7. Marlowe’s Mood (5:58)
8. Stanky (5:07)
9. Sister Suz (7:26)

The album opens with the smooth, Hammond-driven titular Convertible and the low slung funk of Cobblestones, then we get the sweepingly sculpted Vivi’s Bounce and the ornate beauty found within Akiko.

Along next is one of my personal favorites off the recording, the blues-rock of Funky Princess (with Grammy Award-winning guitarist Eric Johnson) and that is backed seamlessly by the veritably shimmering balladry of Alice, the free-flowing hipsway of Marlowe’s Mood, the album coming to a close on the Hammond-led Stanky and the gently rambunctious, soaring, yet at all times dutifully grounded, blues ache of Sister Suz.

MUSICIANS:
Kingsley Durant: guitars
Steve Hunt: keyboards
Roscoe Beck: basses
Tom Brechtlein: drums and percussion
Ricardo Monzón: percussion (on Cobblestones, Marlowe’s Mood, and Sister Suz)
Eric Johnson: guitar (on Funky Princess)

Official Purchase Link