Kenney first began recording their songs at a small recording studio housed at the
Shambhala School, a non-denominational private school in Halifax, when they were 17. Joel Plaskett visited the school one day to talk about playing and recording music, and listened to what they had recorded. Two years later, Plaskett's manager called Kenney with the news that they were invited to attend
Gordie Sampson's Songcamp in
Cape Breton. Kenney later began working on their first recording with Plaskett, starting in April 2011. Although hampered by severe stage fright when first beginning to perform, Kenney now impresses critics with their at-ease and affable stage presence. Among their notable international performances to date, Kenney played at the Iceland Airwaves Music Festival in October 2012 and at the Great Escape Festival in Brighton in May 2013. Their debut album, entitled
Mo Kenney, was produced by Plaskett and recorded at his studio in
Dartmouth. The album was released in September 2012 by New Scotland Records and
Pheromone Recordings. Plaskett co-wrote two of the album's songs with Kenney. The two of them are the only musicians who play on the album. In July 2013, Kenney's song "Sucker" won the
SOCAN Songwriting Prize for the best song by an independent Canadian musician, sponsored by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. The awards for their debut album continued into 2014, when
Mo Kenney picked up four ECMA award nominations, winning the award for pop recording of the year. Also in 2014,
Mo Kenney was released in England, Ireland, and Germany. In September 2014, Kenney released their second album,
In My Dreams, which was again produced by Joel Plaskett and released by New Scotland Records and
Pheromone Recordings. The album delivered Kenney an ECMA award for Pop Recording of the Year for the second straight year. Kenney did a cross-country tour supporting the release of
In My Dreams, and went to perform on Joel Plaskett's Park Avenue Sobriety Test tour in the Spring of 2015, both opening for Plaskett and accompanying band on guitar and backing vocals for half of every show on the tour.
In My Dreams was released in Ireland, the UK, and Germany in September 2015. On September 29, 2017, they released their third album,
The Details. In April 2019, Kenney released a follow-up single entitled "Ahead of Myself". In 2021 Kenney released
Covers, an album of
cover versions of songs by artists such as
Patsy Cline,
Daniel Romano,
Stone Temple Pilots,
The Kinks,
Guided by Voices,
Tom Petty and
The Magnetic Fields. In 2025 Kenney contributed a cover of Plaskett's "Lonely Love" to the Plaskett tribute album
Songs from the Gang. ==Discography==