User:KenMercer/Ken mercer

Kenneth Hartley Mercer (Born 17 January 1989) is an American singer/songwriter from Wilmington, North Carolina.

Though he has yet to release a full length album, his popularity stems from his viral distribution of individual tracks and word of mouth marketing.

Early Life
Ken Mercer was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, but within one year of his birth moved with his family to Clifton Park, New York, a suburb of Albany. After a brief stint in Amesbury, Massachusetts, Ken moved back to Clifton Park and took up playing the trumpet in middle school, and instrument he continued to play through his Freshman year of college. In High School, Ken received a Peavey Raptor Plus guitar starter kit, and started to teach himself on the instrument. In High School, he was the lead guitarist in a band formed with classmate Liz Yoquinto called "Courtesy of the Man," a pop-punk group which Yoquinto held most of the influence over. Ken graduated from Shenendehowa High School in 2006, effectively ending his tenure with Courtesy of the Man.

College Years
After graduating High School, Ken began to attend the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in Wilmington, NC. While there he began exploring the possibility of writing his own music. In lieu of a traditional studio, Ken recorded an entire album in his apartment using only his Peavey Raptor guitar, practice amp, and Apple MacBook during the Fall of 2007. This album, entitled Meiuqer (which is "requiem" spelled backwards), was released in CD format and was briefly available in the iTunes Store. The artist has since pulled the album off the shelves, though he has publicly stated that he does not have a problem with the music being shared on peer-to-peer or file sharing websites.

In the Fall of 2008, Ken Mercer began serious work on a new album.