Drew Kennedy

Texas-based Americana singer/songwriter Drew Kennedy entered the world in Virginia, where he first took the stage in local venues across that state and neighboring Maryland. After finishing college he settled in Houston, then shifted his base to New Braunfels. His first recording, the 2003 EP Hillbilly Pilgrim, appeared on Thumbs Down Music. He drew wider attention by penning the title track for Jason Boland & the Stragglers’ Bourbon Legend, which led to a deal with the band’s Sustain Records imprint. Under that arrangement he issued his full-length debut, Dollar Theatre Movie, in the first months of 2007. Guy Clark ranks among Kennedy’s key influences, and the songwriter’s output reflects a worn yet sincere literary sensibility; that quality surfaced clearly on the loosely linked road-song cycle An Audio Guide to Cross Country Travel, released in 2009. A spare live set, Alone, But Not Lonely, followed in 2010. The more expansive third studio album, Fresh Water in the Salton Sea, arrived in 2011 at the same time Kennedy published his debut novel of the identical title. Two years afterward, Wide Listener included two songs co-written with Lori McKenna. Although Kennedy typically records his stark stories with a complete band, his solo acoustic performances remain a central part of his work; one such set, taped without his knowledge by a sound engineer at a modest League City, Texas club in 2013, became the unplanned live document Sad Songs, Happily Played. He returned to the studio in 2017 for At Home in the Big Lonesome, widely viewed as one of his most cohesive recorded statements.