A college student with an adumbrating habit of American roots music exploration, Drew Kennedy began his musical immersion while attending Hamden-Sydney College in Virginia. The Pennsylvania native eagerly studied albums by innovators including Guy Clark, Steve Earle and Gram Parsons, along with Dave Matthews, Ryan Adams and Ben Folds. It was an enlightening musical education. 2003 found Kennedy offering his first batch of original songs for public consumption: Hillbilly Pilgrim introduced a bright songwriter with undeniable potential. Early compositions including "Livin' or Dyin'" and "Goodnight Mississippi" wield an uncanny literary sense of character and theme, while his voice confidently revels in its own uniqueness, taking bold chances and effectually conveying loneliness or jubilation. Kennedy longed for musical fellowship, and in 2004, he moved to Texas to join the state's flourishing artistic community. His maturation as a writer accelerated, seasoned by experience and invigorated by his new peers. He also developed as a live performer, singing his songs in venues throughout Texas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In 2007, Kennedy released his sophomore effort. He called it Dollar Theatre Movie, an allusion to the vivid cast of characters and stories inhabiting his newest songs. Produced by Gerald Boyd, Dollar Theatre Movie captured the spirit of a young troubadour discovering his voice. Tracks like "Ramblin' Heart" and the first single "Take Me Home" do honky tonk whimsical justice, while the rest of the tunes employ a broad spectrum of influences without succumbing to imitation. "Baytown" finds Kennedy channeling Otis Redding's lazy dock in a cinch; Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis supply harmonies for jewel "Tomorrow's Night Tonight," and a front-porch jam session ensues. Kennedy wrote all 13 of the album's tracks by himself save two, which he co-wrote. Although he pens most of his work alone, Kennedy co-writes occasionally with friends, thriving most in collaborations steeped in mutual admiration. "Bourbon Legend," which he wrote with Jason Boland, became the title track of Boland and the Stragglers' 2006 release. In April, Kennedy completed work on his next studio offering, entitled An Audio Guide To Cross Country Travel. The 11 track album, which he co-produced with longtime friend and multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Matt Powell, is slated for a late summer / early fall release.
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