Stan Kesler

Sun musician, producer, songwriter BORN 1928

Born in Mississippi and musically adept from a young age, in the early ’50s Stan Kesler was playing steel guitar for the Snearly Ranch Boys in Memphis, a shifting outfit whose ranks at times included Jerry Lee Lewis, Reggie Young, Bill Black, Paul Burlison, Barbara Pittman and future Stax Records co-founder Jim Stewart on fiddle. During his time in the band, Kesler co-wrote I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone and I Forgot To Remember To Forget: a short hop away at Sam Phillips’ Sun Studio, both songs would be recorded in 1955 by the young Elvis Presley. Becoming a regular session multi-instrumentalist and engineer at Sun, Kesler played with Jerry Lee, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison. He later worked with James Carr at Goldwax, produced 1965 big-seller Woolly Bully for Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs, and put together formations of musicians, including the Memphis Boys and the Dixie Flyers. As a writer, his material was covered by Johnny Cash, Wanda Jackson and, again, Elvis (Kesler was especially proud of The King’s 1969 version of If I’m A Fool (For Loving You)). In the ’80s he formed the Sun Rhythm Section with Burlison, Sonny Burgess, DJ Fontana and others. He retired to Tennessee in the early ’90s.