jesse lenat

Jesse Lenat is a songwriter, singer and performer who makes his home in New York City...but grew up in rural pennsylvania the son of a cactus man. Jesse has made music with his older brother david since he was old enough to be whipped and has never stopped loving the sweet torture it brings...his first concert was given at the tender age of 8 to a crowd of 150 or so screaming elementary school children in a geodesic dome in the woods of "The School in Rose Valley". His casual and captivating style was already being formed while he sang "whole lotta Rosie", "Go Down", and "TNT". Jesse wore his hair long and donned a blue k-mart special baseball cap covered with rock'n roll pins of his favorite bands of the time:ac/dc,black sabath,iron maiden, and ted nugent. Brother David also wore his hair long and strapped on a mean 5o's gibson les paul gold top and they both wore tight jeans concert jersey's and of course steel tipped work boots...which were equally good to play soccer in. Jesse started this concert off with his signature act of disappearing into the woods just as he was supposed to take the stage, for a quick communion with nature: which mostly consisted of puking his guts out into the cold dark earth. Now mostly it's just cold strangely lit bathroom stalls or dark alleys, but hey they do the trick...he's hoping that his recent communion in the desert landscape of The Big Bend National Park in Texas, where he was privy to flashes of his animal protectors(Eagle and Dog), Crazy Horse, Tecumseh and perhaps the roasted goat that he had ingested the night before, which was offered by a stranger at an unknown bar, will bring him a new found energy which will afford him the confidence to no longer engage in this taxing ritual. jesse most recently had the honor of portraying the character of "the Shape" in a new collaboration between stephen king and John Cougar-mellencamp. jesse has also worked in the theatre with such greats as Sam Sheperd and T-bone Burnett and Mos Def. jesse was also an original cast member of the hit musical "RENT"(which was his first show in nyc)...and has performed a solo show about the life of woody guthrie. Jesse has also appeared on many tv shows and independent films and his voice has been heard on vh-1 and the rockstar video games "Grand Theft Auto" and "Warriors". jesse currently lives in brooklyn when he can afford to pay his rent and likes to play his music whenever he can...solo or with a myriad of excellent musicians whose core for the past year or so has been made up of The ever playful and funky Cavassa Nickens on bass, the grooving beats, with just the right spice and loosey goosieness, of wylie wirth and the secret weapon of the tone master and ambient sound king of his flesh and blood David Lenat. Jesse plays a mean Rhythmic acoustic guitar (of course a banner Gibson from the 40's) and sings with soul and sweetness to lift the spirits or cast a meditative and sometimes melancholic spell for a churchlike or jukejoint human experience...