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Kendell Marvel Reflects on His Career Following the Release of 'Lowdown & Lonesome'
Kendell Marvel
When you think Illinois, the first thing that usually appears in
people’s minds is “The Windy City” of Chicago. But, there’s a lot more
to the Land of Lincoln than simply the third-largest city in the United
States. Just ask singer-songwriter Kendell Marvel, who hails from the southeastern portion of the state -- where there is nary a skyscraper in sight.
“It’s interesting,” Marvel admitted to Billboard.
“When I say Illinois, people think Chicago. I grew up about 30 miles
from Paducah, Kentucky -- about three hours from Nashville. It’s pretty
country up there, very much agricultural-based and a lot of coal mines.
It’s a hotspot for country music lovers up there.” And, there was
certainly plenty that influenced him -- from Waylon and Willie to Southern rock sounds such as Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers Band.
All of those sounds come to light in his songwriting, which got a huge boost in the fall of 2000 when Gary Allan released his “Right Where I Need To Be” composition, taking it to No. 5 on the Country Songs
chart. “I wrote that the day that I moved to Nashville,” he recalled.
“It was a good first day. I remember thinking, if it’s going to be this
easy, I’m going to be rich. But, the next one was a little harder to
get.” While he had to wait for other cuts, they came, thanks to artists
such as Jake Owen (“Don’t Think I Can’t Love You“) and George Strait
(“Twang”). Though, when it came for his own musical approach as an
artist, he found that a more traditional sound was a natural fit. “With
me being a songwriter around here for so many years, I thought it was
time to do something a little different. I’ve made a living on Top-40
radio for several years, so I’m glad for that. But, as an artist, I
can’t do what a lot of these guys are doing and sell it like they can.”
Marvel proves to be the perfect salesman for his own sound, as reflected by his new critically acclaimed disc, Lowdown & Lonesome.
One of the highlights from the album is the pain-drenched “Hurtin’
Gets Hard,” of which he said, “That is probably my favorite -- and my
wife’s favorite song on the record. It’s very old school sounding.
People ask me if I live all my songs, and I tell them [if] I did, I’d be
dead or in jail. But, that one is one that I think everyone can relate
to. If you’re hurting, for whatever reason, it’s easy to put up a front
when you’re out in front of people. It’s when you are at home is when it
hits you.”
Thankfully, the lyric is something that the singer
isn’t going through -- since his marriage is doing just fine, thank you.
But, where does a wordsmith go emotionally to write such a track? “I
don’t know if it’s where the talent comes into play or not," he says. "I
think that songwriting is like golf. You’ve got to do it a lot to get
good at it. When I moved here, I thought I had some songs that were
really good, but looking back, they were not that good. I think there’s
something that you can tap into. When we wrote that, we were looking for
that kind of song. We wanted to write something like ‘Goodtime
Charlie’s Got the Blues,’ which was missing on the record. So, we sat
down and channeled something like that.”
Three of the cuts from Lowdown & Lonesome are co-written by reigning Country Music Association Awards Male Vocalist of the Year, Chris Stapleton,
with whom Marvel has enjoyed a long friendship. “Chris and I go way
back," Marvel says. "We’ve probably written about 60 songs together. We
had a lot of cuts together when he was just a songwriter. I’ve got two
on his upcoming album. It’s great to see him blow up into the star that
he is right now, and even cooler to know that he’s still the same guy he
always was.”
But Marvel knew early on just how special his collaborator’s talent
was. “I always called him a freak," Marvel says. "He’s a freak of nature
with his voice and his writing ability. He was really young when he
moved here. I heard some songs he wrote when he was a teenager, and I
thought he had to be at least 50. He’s just a natural talent.”
In
addition to his records, Kendell Marvel is developing quite the
reputation around Music City for his live performances, which can be
seen each month at the Exit/In. They have become can’t-miss musical
moments, as one never knows who might show up. “We have this thing we do
called The Kendell Marvel Honky Tonk Experience, and we wanted to draw
attention to this record, and have people look at me as something more
than a songwriter," he says. "Keith Gattis,
my producer, and Waylon Payne used to do something like this out in Los
Angeles, where they would just have people come out and sit in. I would
play most of the record every night, sing a few cover songs, and have
some of my friends come out and sing their favorite cover songs. Nobody
has ever done their own songs. They do some of somebody else’s. We’ve
had a wide range of people come out -- Alison Krauss, Jamey Johnson, Randy Houser, Brothers Osborne and Jake Owen, as well as some of the Foo Fighters and The Black Crowes on the last one we did. It was pretty amazing, some of the people we have coming out.”
Needless
to say, between the monthly gig and the new album, the name of Kendell
Marvel is being spoken on plenty of lips -- and that’s something he
doesn’t take for granted. “That was the plan," he says. "It could have
gone either way. It could have gone really good or really bad, so I’m
definitely pleased with how it came out.”
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