Singer-songwriter veteran from the Austin music scene Larry Lesser celebrated his first two years in the "Coastal Empire" with an 8-song set at this year's Celebrate AASU Day on the quadrangle of the Armstrong Atlantic State University campus.

Lesser's 3 decades in Texas (including his first dozen years as a songwriter) culminated in his "very nicely put together" (Kevin Connor, KGSR-FM) 1992 album Afterglow, which attracted much attention with its environmental/relationship satire “Earthwoman.”  "Earthwoman" has since been recorded by the acoustic trio Folkus, adding a new round of live performances and airplay on stations such as KGSR-FM (Progressive/Triple A format) and KUT-FM (NPR-affiliate).  While attending the University of Texas, Lesser was VP of the Austin Songwriters’ Group, taught an adult education course in songwriting at UT, took music business classes at Austin Community College, was a music journalist, and received critical media praise and song contest awards.

Lesser honed his craft the next 5 years within sight of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, attending the Lyons Folks Festival Song School most of those years, soaking up insights from world-class performers by the shores of the St. Vrain.  Larry's time in Colorado generated a batch of songs that not only incorporate images from the environment (e.g., “Foothills” and “New Snow Song”), but also embody a “less is more” sparseness (e.g., the Richard Shindell-style "Aeolian Heart") that reflects the peaks and valleys and open spaces -- giving the audience more room to encounter their own experience.  Since moving "from the High Country to the Lowcountry" in 1999,  he has expanded his palette in a whole new set of ways, thanks to the new cultural and physical environments and to becoming a dad (on Y2K day)!  His Georgia performances have ranged from coffeehouse nights to Celebrate AASU Day to an educational concert sponsored by the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

Larry accompanies his unaffected tenor vocals on nylon- and steel-stringed flattop acoustic guitars, using fingerstyle and flatpicking and -- for an extra challenge -- plays left-handed!  His solo performances are engaging with witty patter and specializing in original, well-crafted "songs that are sensitive, soothing and often humorous" (Rice University Sallyport) as they encounter both personal and collective human journeys at the millenium's turn.  His music and lyrics span a broad stylistic range:  one evening's performance might include a rap song about psychotherapy, a rocker about a time to rest, a blues song about academia, an allegorical ballad called "Zoo Afternoon" (that Music City Texascalled "outstanding"), and a humorous song parody!  Several of Larry's songs have won contest awards (e.g., ASG, CJAC) and the hook's lyrical twist from Afterglow's "As You Go" was similar to what Rick Trevino took to the top of the Billboard country singles chart a few years later.

Lesser's best songs use direct language that allows the listener to connect immediately on at least one level, but offers additional nuances for subsequent listenings.  Without losing intensity, Lesser's recent repertoire incorporates more hope and humor, and his songs have roots in the personal and spiritual in a way that does not shut out the audience.  The son of engineering and English majors, Larry's songs integrate precision and poetry (he studied poetry under Guggenheim Fellow Susan Wood).  Music was Larry's only straight-A subject in college, though he'd gone ahead and written 60 songs before taking the first of those classes (he's long stopped counting, but estimates he's written around 500 songs by now).   Lesser grew up on "concept-album" rock (e.g., Rush, Kansas, Yes) and Top40 radio before discovering contemporary folk influences such as Richard Shindell, David Wilcox, Cheryl Wheeler, Christine Lavin, and Suzanne Vega.

Many of Larry's songs aim to inspire insight as well as feeling, which parallels Larry's "day job" as an educator ("Professor Lesser"!), but he’s certainly no ivory-tower academic, as evidenced when KGSR-FM played his "Big Bad Grad School Blues."  Lesser often uses his musical talents for educational outreach, such as doing classroom presentations, presenting national workshops (ranging from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum summer teacher institute to the International Folk Alliance Conference), publishing 19 lyrics in international/national educational periodicals, and publishing pioneering teacher-friendly articles on using songs in the classroom (Larry performed one of those songs live on Internet and AM radio stations!).    His lyrics have appeared (alongside the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Neil Young and Sting) in the sourcebook Learning From Lyrics, published by M.U.S.I.C. (Musicians United for Songs in the Classroom, a nonprofit organization promoting the greater use of popular music in education).

Amidst many commitments, Larry has found time to play a variety of coffeehouses, auditoriums, conferences, benefits and festivals in Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Georgia, including:  the Evans Autumnfest Acoustic Concert (first time his name made a festival t-shirt), the Furry Friends Folk Fest (UCCC's Hensel Phelps Theatre), KSRX-FM Spring Concert, Coffee Cup Gallery, Waterloo Records, High Time Tea-Bar and Brain Gym, Southwestern University, Weld County AIDS Day events (first time his performance was signed by an interpreter for the hearing impaired), and a Barnes & Noble Bookstore, as well as opening for acts at the Cactus Café and Saxon Pub.   So Larry has indeed come a long way since that first paid gig in Austin in 1990, at which the wooden performers' platform actually collapsed from the Spandex stomps of the opening act -- an teenage Jazzercise class demonstration!   Fortunately, the experience at least gave Larry a good story to tell (which he did in an issue of the national magazine Performing Songwriter),and it turned out to be just a stage to go through......


photograph © 1999, 2000 Lauren Davis

updated February 2002         for more information: (912) 355-4443

Original Songs Recorded by:

* Larry Lesser, Afterglow (1992), PLP001, Poet Larryate Publishing, BMI;    Contains:  "Green Line", "The Hard Way", "As You Go", "Rails", "Earthwoman", "Zoo Afternoon", "Bats", "Afterglow", "Big Bad Grad School Blues."
* Folkus, Folkus(1995), F9510, includes “Earthwoman”
* Jon Hall (1997), “Circle of Hands” (co-write that appeared in a video for a non-profit Dallas-based organization) and “Moonlight in the Room”
* Leo Mazow (1987) demo Is This the World?contains "Small Talk"
* Leo Mazow (1986) demo Tangled in the Stormcontains  "Reaching for the Rainbows"

Media Coverage

PRINT:             critical praise from Music City Texas and Rice University Sallyport
RADIO:            interviews / songs on KGSR-FM (Austin), KUT-FM (Austin), KFNX-AM (Phoenix), WALE-AM (Providence)
INTERNET:      interview/song on live broadcast on www.renaissanceradio.com (North American Broadcasting Company)
TELEVISION:   excerpts of performances on FOX's Austin affiliate KTBC-TV,  ABC's Austin affiliate KVUE-TV,  Greeley's (Colorado) Channel 8, and Savannah's Comcast Cable Channel 7

Awards/Pickups

* “Cowtown” 1st place Greeley (CO) Tribune contest (1998; see 7/11/1998 Mike Peters' column on p. A10)
* “Jerusalem” 2nd place Celebration of Jewish Arts and Culture (1993)
* “Rails” 1st place Austin Songwriter’s Group competition (1992)
* "Earthwoman" picked up by Gold Castle Records' Jeff Heiman at Austin Songwriters EXPO pitch-a-thon (1991)

Selected Performance Venues (excluding open-mikes, weddings, services, etc.)

* in TX:  The Pier on Lake Austin, Waterloo Records, High Time Tea-Bar and Brain Gym, Cactus Café (opening for Austin Klezmorim), Saxon Pub (opening for Olin Murrell), Lubbock or Leave It (CJAC Festival), Austin Songwriters Group Benefit for Chicago House, Southwestern University, Congregation Emanu El (Houston) Festival
* in CO: Evans Autumnfest,  Children’s Mercantile Co. bookstore, Garden Theatre (University of Northern Colorado)
* in GA: Armstrong Atlantic State University (Celebrate AASU Day), Jewish Education Alliance, Agudath Achim Coffee House, Richmond Hill Primary School (sponsored by the Richmond Hill Public Library and Georgia Music Hall of Fame)
* in WY:  Coffee Cup Gallery,  Barnes and Noble Bookstore
 

Teaching / Consulting / Judging Experience

* Presented invited workshop "Schoolhouse Folk:  How Folkies and Educators Can Help Each Other" at the 14th International Folk Alliance Conference, Jacksonville, FL, 2002.
* Judge for 16th annual Jimmy Dean True Value Country Showdown contest (Colorado/Wyoming region), New West Fest, Ft. Collins, CO, 1997
* created and taught songwriting classes for University of Texas at Austin Informal Classes (1991-1993), receiving excellent evaluations
* initiated and helped coordinate credit course in songwriting (taught by Lee Martin) at Rice University, 1985
* private instruction in beginning guitar and in songwriting
* supervised music education dissertation of Kim McCord, U. of Northern Colorado, 1999
* spoke on "Using Music in Magic", July 1993 meeting of Society of American Magicians #207 (Austin)
* presentation on "creativity" at July 1993 meeting of Austin Songwriters Group (opening for Sara Hickman)
* numerous local, state and national workshops & conference educational performances and presentations on using music in teaching mathematics & statistics, 1994-present, such as the Summer Teacher Institute sponsored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum
(see http://www.math.armstrong.edu/faculty/lesser/Mathemusician.html)
 

Publications

in national music industry periodicals:
* [Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase] Songwriter’s Musepaper:
Interview [and photo] of David Wilcox, July 1994 issue, 9(7), pp. 7-10, 18.  (Was also published on the World Wide Web at kspace.com from 1994-1997)
* The Performing Songwriter:
“Gig from Hell”, May/June 1994 issue, Vol. 1, No. 6, p. 85;
also, letter for special "Healing Power of Music" issue, Nov. 2001 issue, Vol. 9, No. 57, p. 93.
* Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine:
 "You're a Bad Old Flag" lyric on p. 104 of the Spring 2001 (Vol. 45, No. 1) issue of Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine

in local songwriter publications:
*Austin Songwriters Group Newsletter articles:
 "The Spirit of Radio" (Aug. 1992), Library Lowdown (Sept. 1992), "Interview of Beverly Guhl:  The Value of Visuals" (Feb. 1993), "Interviews of Susan Colton and Dan Colehour:  Focusing on Performance" (July 1993), "Singer-Songwriter Symbiosis" (Aug, 1993), "Music and Life" (Dec. 1993), "Idea Sketch" (Feb. 1994), "Critiquing Process" (March 1994), "Interview:  David Wilcox" (April 1994), CD reviews (June 1994), and report on Planet Bluegrass Folks Fest Song School (October 1994).

19 lyrics published in international/national educational journals:
 March 1999 Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal,the April 2000, May 2001, and August 2001 issues of  Humanistic  Mathematics Network Journal,the May 2000 issue of Mathematics Teacher,the Autumn 2001 issue of Teaching Statistics, the Winter 2002 issue of STATS,  and the Learning From Lyrics sourcebook (2001) published by Musicians United for Songs in the Classroom
 

Memberships / Conferences

* Participant at International Folk Alliance Conference, 2002; co-initiator of the "folk-in-the-schools" network
* Savannah Folk Music Society, 1999-present.
* Swallow Hill Music Association, 1994-1999
* Austin Songwriters Group(ASG):  member 1990-1994;  Librarian 1992-1994;  Vice-President and Board Member 1993-1994
* participant in ASG/Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase EXPO  1990, 1991
* participant in ASG Summer Songwriter Series 1994
* board or staff member for ASG Summer Songwriter Series 1992, 1993
* participant in South by Southwest(SXSW) 1992
* Broadcast Music, Inc.(BMI): writer/publisher (Poet Larryate Publishing) 1991-present
* board or staff member for Celebration of Jewish Arts and Culture(CJAC) 1992, 1993
* holidays/Music Director, Congregation Kol HaShalom, Austin 1989-1994

My Songwriting/Music-Related Education

* numerous workshops attended at songwriter/music conferences (see above section), 1990-present
* Math and Music minicourse, MAA/AMS annual meetings, San Antonio, 1999
* Planet Bluegrass Folks Festival Song School, Wildflower Ranch, Lyons, CO, 1995, 1997, 1998 (includes workshops from artists such as Vance Gilbert, David Wilcox, John Gorka, Peter Himmelman, Janis Ian, Dar Williams, Tom Paxton, Paul Reisler, Steve Seskin, Maggie Simpson)
* University of Texas at Austin Informal Classes in voice, harmonica, guitar & music therapy, 1986-1993
* private instruction in percussion(Herb Belofsky), voice, classical guitar(Maria Cortes, Jim Lawrie), jazz guitar(Ted Hall, Kevin Simon), 1986-1992
* Austin Community College courses in music business & marketing, 1990
* Rice University courses in music theory, songwriting (Lee Martin), piano (Wendy Tacogna), and voice(Doug Yates), 1984-1986
* Rice University course in poetry with Susan Wood (one of the few poets to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship), 1985

(Lesser) Claims to Fame

* his poem "When in Rome" published in Rice University's annual literary journal, University Blue, 1986
* article on his educational songs (including the lyrics reprinted from a sample song) appears in March 31, 2002 (Melbourne) Herald Sun, the largest-selling newspaper in Australia
* “Fallow Field” lyric published in Oct. 1997 issue (vol. 7, no. 6) of community-supported agriculture (CSA) organic farm publication Growing from the Heart;
* ability to stay ahead of trends:  two of his unpublished songs from the mid-eighties, "Creator Debater" and "Brontosaurus Boogie", were written before  widespread attention on evangelists and dinosaurs began; also, the title cut of Rick Trevino’s album Learning As You Go (1996; CBS 67452), whose hook lyric has a twist similar to Larry’s 1992 song “As You Go”,  topped the Billboard country singles chart
* musicians have backed Larry in the studio that have also recorded with major-label artists ranging from Jerry Jeff Walker to Laurie Freelove
* recording artists that Larry has publicly performed with include Jon Hall, JUNO-awardee Jack Gabriel, Cantor Rebecca Garfein, Robbi Sherwin (CAJE-awardee for best new artist), FOLKUS, and Austin Klezmorim
* A parody lyric Larry wrote was set to a 4-part harmony arrangement by Dr. Dale Kilhefner, a member of Savannah's popular a capella quartet Holiday Harmonies
*  special thanks in CD liner notes of Robbi Sherwin's Todah L'Chem (2000) and Cantor Rebecca Garfein's Sacred Chants of the Contemporary Synagogue (1998), and “bald-headed boyfriend” on Christine Lavin’s Live at the Cactus Café (1993; PH 1159)
* Larry's first radio performance was singing "Happy Birthday" Dylan-style to win boxed set of Bob Dylan CD's from Austin's KGSR-FM to mark Dylan's 50th birthday (1991)

updated April 2002         for more information: (912) 355-4443