Biography

Kessler Watson is a multi-instrumentalist and singer and composer from Asheville, NC – who specializes in jazz guitar. A professional performing musician since 2017, Kessler spent his youth traveling around the United States, from New Orleans to Seattle, and everywhere in between, busking for a living and living in various states, busking on the streets, and performing professionally in cities like Denver, CO, Eugene, OR, Ashland, OR, Asheville, NC, and many others. Kessler started playing the guitar at the age of 14, playing folk music and acoustic guitar alone for many years, and studied classical guitar by composers and performers such as J.S. Bach, Fernando For, Francisco Tarrega, Agustin Barrios and Andres Segovia, until discovering jazz music through the work of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery, and began teaching himself to read music and studying to play the jazz guitar. During his travels he discovered various musics from around the earth, and studied the works of African guitarists and Kora players such as Ballake Sissoko and Ali Farka Toure, and the Cuban flavored sounds of Compay Segundo, Buena Vista Social Club, Ochoa Eliades and Trio Matamoros, and studied the latin guitar for many years, leading him eventually to construct his own Cuban Tres and learned to play listening to recordings.

Kessler also is a professional performing bluegrass musician and performs with the “Ginseng String Ensemble” based in Asheville, NC. Kessler has played bluegrass music and folk music for his entire life as a musician, being inspired by local influences and artists such as Doc Watson, Lester Flatt, Reno and Smiley, Tony Rice and many others – cherishing his Appalachian heritage and seeking to exemplify the music of the region he was raised in, and share this wonderful music with the world. 

Kessler is involved in several current musical projects in 2026, “Asheville Swing Ensemble,” – a jazz-centered group which highlights the swing era with a strong Bossa nova influence, featuring Cuban born Lianet Gomez who sings, and Michael Dunham on stand-up bass. 

Kessler is also the lead guitarist and Tres player in the Cuban band “Ache Tropical,” led by singer Lianet Gomez, performing traditional Cuban music and salsa music.

Kessler is the lead guitarist in the “Ginseng String Ensemble” bluegrass group which is an old time, bluegrass and folk music group that is centered on traditional Appalachian music and American folk songs, with riveting melodic three-part harmonies and instrumental flair. 

Currently Kessler is working between these projects as well as on an album of his own original compositions as a solo guitarist, resembling a more classical approach to music and mainly composed of instrumental guitar pieces. He frequently performs in the southeast United States from South Carolina to Tennessee. 

“My desire to perform music for people comes from a place in my heart of wanting to share with the world the gift of music that God has given us, to inspire audiences to feel and experience something that is beautiful and memorable, and to leave an imprint on the souls of those who hear me and a reminder that we are all humans, and music is the universal language by which the heart and soul speaks to another, no matter the differences between us.” – Kessler Watson

Kessler plays a 1973 Guild F40, and a 1968 Martin D18

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