Ken Hardley is a musician, entertainer, socialite, incessant talker, and all around man-about-town who has been performing in public for more than three decades.
For a good share of that time he has traveled Western and Central New York – playing in bands, playing solo, playing guitar, banjo, and harp.

Hardley works with such a huge variety of styles (from traditional bluegrass to Rickie Lee Jones, from reggae to Bob Wills, from rockabilly to the Grateful Dead) that attempts to categorize are misleading. A performance from Ken Hardley will include songs you know, songs you don’t, exciting songs, significant songs, sweet songs, romantic songs, and songs directly from his unusual mind. Since he first crept onstage those many years ago, Hardley has almost continuously stretched his horizons, experimenting and evolving his sound as well as his relationship with his audiences. Years of playing in gymnasiums, festivals, coffeehouses, bars, private parties, and large concert venues have given Hardley a range of experience enjoyed by few performers. There aren’t many areas of Upstate New York State that Ken hasn’t played, but he settled on a permanent residence in Western New York in the early 90’s. Having shared the stage with Jonathan Edwards, John Hall, and the Dady Brothers - having been in bands with Kevin Maul (Robin and Linda Williams, The Garrison Keillor Show), Jimmy McEveney (The Colorblind James Experience), and John Latini, Ken considers the stage his second, or maybe his first, home.

 When Ken Hardley performs, the music is important but something bigger than that abides – the atmosphere becomes warm yet edgy, kind yet wry, familiar yet unpredictable, cerebral yet intuitive. Ken’s ability to engage an audience and his lust for life transform each performance into a potential friendship. When Ken plays, somehow he will get to know you.