Some have predicted the demise of of the singer-songwriter. Despite the burst of popular response to the “one man band” in the last ten years, many music critics foresee a bleak future for the lone troubadour. Naysayers see this format as a fad to be replaced by whatever schtick impatient artsy-fartsy types find appealing in the next moment.

Enter Steven Delopoulos. His unadorned approach to songwriting hearkens back to legends such as Bob Dylan and Cat Stevens. It’s a reminder that the one-man-and-a-guitar format is no mere fad but the tap root of folk music. There is nothing pretentious about Steven’s music–nor the man himself. Steven manages to take his art seriously while not taking himself so. He’s not a businessman, he says. Half of the time he doesn’t know exactly what he is writing until he views the completed page. He humbly admits to no intentions for his art except to make it, and to have it affect others. At present, his most pressing task is keeping off a burgeoning belly. (The culprit? Off the record, he admits it’s the Guinness. It almost always is.)

Steven and I get metaphysical and talk art, layers of meaning, mystery, liturgy, how to build a choir and…opera? All this while trying to ignore a mysterious, intermittent beeping. (We hope you excuse the minor technical difficulty).

~t clair

buy Steven’s new album Straightjacket at www.stringsandwood.com

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 4:03 pm and is filed under Interviews, Lackluster Dispatch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.