Ken Canedo

Ken Canedo is an eminently qualified liturgical composer, songwriter, recording artist, author-historian, producer and workshop presenter. He started early, singing chant in the children’s choir at his Los Angeles parish when the Mass was still in Latin. He played guitar with his high school Folk Mass group in the late 1960s and piano on Bob Hurd’s 1973 debut album, O Let Him In. He has a Master of Divinity from St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California. Ken’s first solo album, Take Some Time, was released in 1978. He has since released nine albums. His songs “Fly Like a Bird” and “Holy Spirit,” his many titles in the Spirit & Song hymnal, as well as his Mass of Glory, which he co-wrote with Bob Hurd, are popular with worshippers around the world. His second solo album, Doxology, was released in 2009. Ken also collaborated with Jesse Manibusan on the bestselling albums, Fish With Me and Love Never Fails. His latest release is We Should Glory, a collaboration with Bob Hurd. He is the author of Keep the Fire Burning: The Folk Mass Revolution, a history of contemporary Catholic music in the 1960s and the sequel, From Mountains High, which covers the 1970s and early 1980s. Ken offers workshops that support the liturgical formation of musicians, choirs, cantors, readers and other ministers, as well as catechists, youth ministers and youth groups. His “Folk Mass Nights” have become popular events where Boomer Catholics and their families sing through the liturgical music of the 1960s while Ken tells stories of those times. Currently, Ken is working on several new books. He is the voice of the popular Liturgy Podcast, a weekly planning resource on ocp.org. He is also a pastoral musician at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Beaverton, Oregon.