Austin Mendenhall

With a distinctive tone emanating from stylistic diversity and rigorous training, guitarist and songwriter Austin Mendenhall has maintained a frantic schedule of touring, recording, and writing during the last decade.At the age of 26, his expansive repertoire includes six professional albums, with one of the most recent work, What’s the Rush? displaying his exquisite technique and desire to conquer new musical frontiers. The album dabbles in the burgeoning genre of “post rock”: instrumental and edgy popular music that Mendenhall has injected with elements of progressive rock, fusion, and metal. Intense and engaging on stage, Mendenhall couples his impressive skills with commanding stage presence and a charming sense of humor to electrify audiences wherever he plays.Mendenhall took up guitar at age 13, recorded an album within two years, and hit the road on his first national tour by the age of 17. He attained a thorough jazz education at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, and later continued his jazz studies at Shenandoah Conservatory and George Mason University. By age 20, Mendenhall had signed with his first record label and was well on his way to developing a reputation of writing “intelligent” and “incendiary” compositions featuring “masterful guitar work” [jambase.com].His nine-year commitment to The Ordinary Way helped bring the band to an “ambitious musical stratosphere”[phreshwater.com]. The band recorded three critically acclaimed albums, which nowontour.com said contained “truly momentous high points that make you come back again and again.” Through his extensive touring, he has shared the stage with a diverse canon of notable artists, including Blues Traveler; Jackson Browne; Ratdog; Bela Fleck & the Flectones; Medeski, Martin, & Wood; John Scofield; Warren Haynes; David Grisman; Derek Trucks; Soulive; Galactic; Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe; Rusted Root; Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey; and many others.In 2007, the song “Quicksauce” from his debut solo album What’s the Rush? was picked up by PBS for the prime-time television documentary, Generation Next. What’s the Rush? also features several pieces by one of Mendenhall’s latest project, Albatross, an instrumental math-rock conglomerate with influences ranging from Mahavishnu Orchestra to Sonic Youth. All in all, What’s the Rush is representative of a young musical veteran’s superior skills, exhaustive experience, and bold aspiration, all of which Mendenhall is sure to bring to future endeavors. For 2009, Austin is currently playing with new pop-rock group MEM who are scheduled to release their debut album, Archaea, in March.
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