Jeffrey+Lewis+paragraph

The night air is cool and the city lights glow through the darkness beyond the trees. I am sitting on a balcony with Jeffrey Lewis, a self-proclaimed folksinger. Lewis sits across from me, slouched low in his chair. His bright, sticker covered guitar is set next to him. There is an air of relaxation and peace about him, as he begins to tell me how he started in the folksinger industry. He embraces simplicity in his music, with hopes that it will result in a large impact, “…with folk you can cut through a lot of things and have that kind of impact with a much more basic set of tools at your disposal”. He discards the idea of intricate, embellished music to grasp an audience’s attention. Some would say the lack of layers to folk music leaves it to sound undeveloped and not of professional quality, “my concept of folk music… You can do more with less”. Lewis picks up the guitar, which pops with color against the dark night. Smiley faces and bumper stickers are grazed by his soft fingers as he strums out the tune of one of his original songs, “Heavy Heart”. Lewis aims to create substantial music with just a few chords on his guitar, a simple melody of lyrics, and a clear message. “The only thing that mattered was here was a song that very powerful and personal and real and true and sincere and that would cut through everything else”.