One of my favorite parts about visiting the Songwriters Showcase at Brewer's Alley in Frederick (MD) every month, apart from playing my Gonzo tunes and improvisation for the appreciative crowd and seeing (and now frequently accompanying) some wonderful people, is discovering a musical talent of immense proportion. No, I don't mean overweight, I mean that special, musical artist that actually moves me. And this week, I have found another . . . Korby Lenker.
(from http://www.korbylenker.com/index.php/bio#bio)
An abbreviated list of Lenker's achievements so far includes: a significant amount of airplay on the legendary Seattle indie rock station KEXP; a BBC 2 interview with Bob Harris, which is only about the highest honor a rootsy singer-songwriter touring the U.K. can get; opening slots for acts ranging from Willie Nelson to Ray LaMontagne, Nickel Creek, Keith Urban, Susan Tedeschi and Tristan Prettyman; a successful run with one of the hottest young West Coast bluegrass bands of the aughts; and wins in the Merlefest folk songwriting contest as well as the Kerrville Folk Festival's elite New Folk songwriting competition. . .
"I like it simple," says Lenker. "I just do. As soon as there's a weird chord, I'm like, 'Why? That's all been done. Who cares?' What's really hard is to hit people in the heart and to reach them. That's what I'm trying to do: make music that's easily likeable, but with a kind of secret sophistication. I'm always trying to write a song that you can hum along with on the first listen. You're like, 'Yeah, I'd like to hear that again.' Then maybe you hear it 20 times and you're like, 'Damn, that's actually something I'm going to think about now.'". . .
"I like it tight," he offers about his experience fronting the 5 piece bluegrass outfit, which SPIN magazine called "The Young Riders of the bluegrass revolt". "I like the solos short and I like harmonies in tune...it was all song-driven for me.". . .
Deep down, Lenker is drawn both to the sort of unadorned expression the discerning folkie crowd treasures and to the sort of playful pop embellishment and electronic textures that may land one of his tracks in a primetime T.V. show or film any day now. . .
And there's nothing at all wrong with having it both ways musically when it comes this naturally. "I can't abandon either one of them," Lenker says, "because they're both so me. One of my favorite musicians in the world, bassist and composer Edgar Meyer once said in an interview 'The boundaries of music have been and always should be limitless.' I couldn't agree more."
. . . ain't it the truth? Well, maybe not exactly.
I would not summarize my situation as such. I've certainly met my share of guitar-playing-vocalizing-pour-my-hear-out-singer-songwriters in my time. Many times hearing them makes me want to, like them, sing my own vocal compositions while accompanying myself on guitar. But then I stop myself. Of the GPVPMHOSSs I've encountered, many were actually very good; others- not so. Then of course, viewing things objectively, of just about all of them I can say some good things, meaning only that all of them have talents of one sort or another. But to be a really great singer/songwriter, many things have to gel to make them a 'star'. Many truly great S/Ss have not or will not become stars due to mere bad luck.
I have concluded awhile back that while I find my writing to be particularly strong, lyrically and musically, I lack the vocal delivery skills necessary to be a real, badass S/S. But I do have great confidence in my skills as a writer and instrumental music performer, and producer - may I say without sounding excessively egoistic. So therefore, I feel this is the artist I must market.
And now, as I am no youngster, I know without a doubt, that I must make my music to the point that some may call music my obsession. But obsession or not, music is the one thing in life that brings me such pleasure, not only in the act of producing sounds themselves, but communicating something of myself to others in these sounds.
'Success' is relative, to be sure. In one way, I have achieved a certain 'success' already in that I know well who I am musically and what I must do. In this fact I take great comfort and find much satisfaction. Irrespective of adulation, notoriety or monetary reward, I can and will continue to do this until I can do it no more.
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