Artist: Drew Kennedy
Album: At Home In The Big Lonesome
Label: Atlas Aurora
Release date: Fall 2016
It's not often that this site implores its readers to help fund a music project, but this new one from Drew Kennedy is an exception. Over the past decade, Kennedy has left the waiting to other people. The Texan has devoted his life to writing and performing his songs his way for anyone who cares. With a catalog seven-albums deep, one novel penned, a music festival created, and an ever-growing group of admirers comprising elite peers and everyday listeners, Kennedy has done more than build a strong career in music. He has reimagined what it means to be a contemporary songwriter, both artistically and entrepreneurially.
On this new project, his almost never-ending life on the highway is the inspiration for the music that has been written. He shares, "It's known by a few different names-- Far West Texas, the Trans-Pecos, Big Bend Country-- but I've come to call it something else in my mind. It's a name I read in a masterfully written article about the passing of a beloved figure from that part of the world. I'm not sure if the author was using the term to describe the place, or if she was perhaps describing the feeling that defined the woman she was writing about. There are more possibilities, too. I've thought about it for hours upon hours, and I can't decide which one it is."
"Her home was the big lonesome. Alone with her burro, she roamed the bar ditches from Terlingua to Marfa and from Marathon to Sierra Blanca." -- Sterry Butcher, "The Mystery Everyone Loved", The Texas Observer (3/23/07)
He goes on to punctuate the quote, "The Big Lonesome."
Kennedy's brought in a big gun to produce the new project in the form of one Dave Brainard. "Dave and I talked about music and songs and the road and work ethic and the weather and studios and highways and Nebraska over a couple of sandwiches. I already knew about his resume-- a GRAMMY nod for producing Brandy Clark's phenomenal 12 Stories album, a record that shot through the music community like a sonic and lyrical lightning bolt, among the other amazing records he's produced (for Jamey Johnson and Jerrod Niemann to name a few)-- so this wasn't really a "what have you been up to?" kind of meeting. It was an "ok, who are you as a guy?" kind of meeting. Turns out, even if he didn't make incredible records for incredible artists, I'd still want to hang out and talk philosophy and highways and music with the guy every chance I could."
And that is where fans of meaningful lyrics and tangible musical depth come in. With a new Kickstarter effort that you can contribute to HERE, you can be part of something that promises to be special and unique.
“You can’t wait for someone to give you the green light,” says Kennedy. “You have to take ownership over what you’re doing and make it happen for yourself. If you wait for someone, you’re going to be waiting for a long time. Maybe forever. I just want to write the best songs that I possibly can. I don’t want to ever stop approaching this as a student of popular song or the craft of writing.”
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