Lenny Solomon

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Lenny Solomon's style has been compared to early Bob Dylan, Guy Clark, and Jerry Jeff Walker. Solomon began his career in the late 1960s. A fixture in the old Idler Coffeehouse in Harvard Square, Cambridge, he regularly performed there on Friday nights for over eight years. The Idler was a training ground for such luminaries as Geoff Bartley, Paul Rishell, Spider John Koerner, and Ric Ocasek. During his years as a solo performer he shared bills with many name performers such as Chris Smither, Carolyn Hester, Bonnie Raitt, and Spider John.For many years music provided a backdrop for his life. From the 1980s through the mid-1990s Solomon continued to write songs but rarely performed in public. He chose rather to raise his family (now grown) and to work in environmental research at Harvard University. In 1997 Solomon decided to get back into live performing and formed a folk/country band appropriately enough called Solomon. Members of the Solomon band include Bill Gibbs on guitars and backup vocals; Don Barry on standup bass and harmony vocals; and Dennis Gurgul on drums and percussion. Performing his original material, Solomon has released four CDs, three of which, Not Life Threatening, Armando's Pie, and Maybe Today are available from his website, www.solomonband.com.Released in 2002, Not Life Threatening received rave reviews and was aired on over 30 public and college radio stations. Of this album, Soundbyte Magazine said, "I'm taken back to another time and place. The music of Bill Gibbs, Dennis Gurgul, and Lenny Solomon harks back to a time so long ago that country music was still called folk, or western, or perhaps hillbilly. It’s old-time music that manages somehow to not be old-timey, generating instead a timeless quality. Lenny Solomon’'s vocals remind me most of John Prine, as does his writing, but there are also elements of the old country and western singers like Merle Travis, Stonewall Jackson, Roy Acuff or Doc Watson."In 2004 Solomon released Armando's Pie. This fourteen-song album consisted of original songs written between 2002 and 2004. A review published in Rambles.net stated, "The 14 tracks on this CD are all excellent and diverse enough to ensure that any listener will find a few that could become favorites. Solomon has the wisdom of that other person of that name. He gives us songs to make us think but never lets the message get in the way of the fact that to transmit any message, the medium must grab and hold our attention." To date, various cuts have been aired on over 130 radio stations.Solomon’s last album, Maybe Today, was released 2/1/07. In a review by Holly Moors (http://www.moorsmagazine.com/muziekbak/solomondrie.html) it states, “We have a weak spot for Lenny Solomon. The man writes lovely, touching and beautiful songs that stay with me. When Armando's Pie came out he told me his next album would be a band-affair once more. That new album (Maybe Today) has become his best so far. His other albums can be considered as a collection of very fine songs, this one has also become a beautifully balanced, complete album.”The Lenny Solomon Band performs in the greater Boston area's clubs, restaurants, coffeehouses, and colleges and are available for private events.