Dr. Kenneth Pulley says he and his identical twin brother, Kelvin, often are asked about their similarities and differences.
He points to one thing that has bound them together all their lives: the love of music, particularly gospel music.
The brothers were raised in Greenwood and returned to their hometown after earning advanced college degrees. Kenneth now is the deputy superintendent for the Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District, and Kelvin is an attorney. But church has always been an important part of their lives, and they have been in demand as musical performers since elementary school, with Kenneth singing and Kelvin playing piano. They have performed at churches all over Leflore County, as well as in Cleveland, Jackson, Memphis and other cities.
In general, “he has what he enjoys, and I have what I enjoy,” Kenneth said. “But music is what we both have always enjoyed together.
“We have different favorite foods, that kind of thing, but ... if he gets to that piano, you can bet your bottom dollar I’m going to start singing a song.”
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The 34-year-old brothers — Kenneth is two minutes older — grew up attending two churches.
Their father, the late Cedell Pulley, was a longtime member of Travelers Rest Missionary Baptist Church, and their mother, Margie Pulley, is a member of Springhill M.B. Church. So the family would go to Springhill on the first and third Sundays of each month and Travelers Rest on the second and fourth Sundays.
The musical talent came mostly from Cedell Pulley’s side of the family; he was a first cousin of blues legend B.B. King. Kenneth Pulley recalled attending reunions and observing that most of the men and women could play guitar. He said he was amazed to see that kind of skill in his family, especially since many of them probably had no formal training. Cedell Pulley also played guitar and sang.
Kelvin said he has played piano as long he can remember, and music was often a family activity. As early as 6 or 7 years old, he would go to the piano and play; then his brother would sing along; then their father would bring his guitar and join them.
The brothers were babysat by a great-aunt, Henrietta Walker, who lived near their grandmother Claudine Brown. Brown had a lot of old gospel records, and the family loved to sing together there, too.
“We’d sit at my grandmother’s house for hours, and I’d be playing songs like ‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus,’ ‘Because He Lives,’ all that,” Kelvin said. “They’d be singing, and I’d be playing.”
The brothers started playing and singing at both of the family churches in elementary school. Church attendance was mandatory in their family, and if someone called their parents and asked whether the boys were available to perform somewhere, their parents would say yes.
“It wasn’t a choice; even if we didn’t want to, we had to go,” Kenneth said.
Because music became such a fixture in their lives, they stayed dedicated to it and worked to get better at it. They showed their talents at school, at family reunions and at special events, such as a Delta Sigma Theta debutante program.
Both took piano lessons from Mildred Sias, a longtime counselor at Greenwood High School who is now deceased. Kelvin started in kindergarten and continued for 12 years, meeting at 6 p.m. on Mondays. Kenneth started lessons soon after his brother did, meeting Mondays at 6:30.
At the age of 5 or 6, Kelvin found he could play a song after hearing it on the radio just once.
“You could bring in any song in here that he’s never heard before in his life, and if he had a keyboard right here, he could play it in two minutes,” Kenneth said.
Kelvin learned to read sheet music, too, but he found being able to play by ear was a valuable skill, and he still uses it today.
For a while, “each year for Christmas, the only thing I wanted was a bigger or better keyboard. That’s all I wanted,” he said. “And most of the time, I got it.”
Eventually, Sias told him she had taught him all she could, so he honed his skills on his own and learned how to play the organ while sitting in with the Travelers Rest organist. He became a regular musician for the church around the age of 12.
He came to realize he had a God-given talent, which is why he very seldom says no when someone asks him to play: “It is a joy when you realize that you can do something that not many other people can do.”
Kenneth said he never took voice lessons or tried to emulate other singers, although he has incorporated some elements of people he has heard over the years.
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Kelvin and Kenneth Pulley sometimes disagree — but not about music or church. (By Johnny Jennings)
After graduating from Greenwood High School in 2005 and starting college at Jackson State University, the brothers maintained their ties with their home churches and resolved to be there every weekend. In fact, they were always back in town to attend choir practice at 7 p.m. Thursdays.
“We set our class schedules each semester so that we were done with classes by Thursday. When we would get through with classes, we would drive to Greenwood for choir practice,” Kenneth said. “We never had a Friday class at Jackson State.”
They maintained this schedule from August 2005 until they graduated in May 2008. Even if they drove to Jackson for a JSU football game on a Saturday, they would return to Greenwood that night.
Vacations also were scheduled to ensure that they didn’t miss church on Sunday, and the Pulleys continue that practice today.
Kelvin missed some time in September and early October of this year when he contracted COVID-19, but Kenneth sat in for him.
“That was probably the second or third time in my life that I missed playing at church,” Kelvin said.
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The Pulley brothers have been a good lifelong team because, in addition to their years of experience, they have clearly defined roles: Kenneth sings, and Kelvin plays.
Kenneth said he plays piano sometimes at home but doesn’t do it publicly; Kelvin doesn’t sing in public or even at family gatherings.
“It’s just not something I took a liking to,” he said. “I felt I was not as good as Kenneth in the singing department. But I knew that I was blessed with talent to play the piano or organ, whether that was at my house, the courthouse or the White House.”
Kenneth has a similar level of confidence about his singing: “I’m the least nervous when I’m singing. I could sing in front of the Commonwealth right now, and it wouldn’t matter to me — as long as he was playing.”
They typically don’t have to rehearse much before a performance unless someone requests a song they haven’t done before; otherwise, they can just show up and perform something familiar.
Sometimes during a church service, Kenneth will pick a song because it fits that day’s sermon, and they will add the song on the fly without the audience noticing.
“He may come over to the organ’s bench, and he may sing it in my ear — nobody can hear it — and I’ll tell him what key that’s in,” Kelvin said. “He may look at me and tell me to slow it down or speed it up, but nobody knows.”
In any case, each has confidence in the other’s ability.
“He can play anything anywhere in front of anybody — hands down,” Kenneth said.
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In addition to church services, the Pulleys have performed for a variety of other gatherings, including events put on by the Greenwood Voters League, the Browning Progressive Civic League and women’s clubs.
They very seldom say no, unless an event conflicts with family obligations.
“We enjoy doing it,” Kenneth said. “I love to sing; he loves to play the piano.”
And it’s nearly always both of them performing together.
“The reason why I don’t go much without him is because he’s my musician,” Kenneth said. “He knows every key, and it’s not written down. ... Matter of fact, he knows my keys when I don’t know them.”
Like any siblings, they disagree about things from time to time — but, Kenneth said, “not anything dealing with church.”
“Or anything to do with music,” Kelvin chimed in.
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Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pulleys often performed at three churches on a Sunday. There have been fewer opportunities during the pandemic, and for a time they provided music for Springhill services from their homes via Zoom, doing four or five songs per service with no choir.
“That was very hard to do. We’d never done it before,” Kelvin said.”But again, all of it’s just the dedication that you have to what you do.”
They still are in demand for funerals, with requests often coming on short notice. Kelvin estimated he has made himself available on Saturdays for funerals for about 25 years, both for people he knows and for others he doesn’t.
“The funeral directors, everyone knows my number,” he said. “Sometimes they’ll call me if they don’t have anyone to provide the music. ... There would be no way for me to put a number on how many times I have made myself available on Saturdays at a funeral.”
Both Pulleys said they perform to serve both God and their community, so they always put forth their best effort.
“With God-given talent, you don’t hide it under a table,” Kelvin said. “Every time I go to the piano or organ or whatever I’m going to do, I do it to the best of my ability.”
Kenneth said he doesn’t tailor his singing to a particular audience but generally looks to uplift people — and it’s a way to express his emotions.
“I guess I’ve been doing it so long that it’s just a part of me,” he said.
- This article first appeared in Leflore Illustrated, a quarterly magazine published by The Greenwood Commonwealth.
