Korby Lenker

Korby Lenker is a roots-music Renaissance man. A prolific songwriter for more than two decades, he’s spent his entire adulthood in a creative whirl, juggling multiple roles — solo artist, road warrior, published author, actor, screenwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and storyteller — along the way.

Why so many avenues? “I think, at the end of the day, I’m in the ‘meaning business,’” he explains. “I come from a long line of preachers, and while I kinda missed the mark there, it’s just in my blood, you know? Everyone wonders why they’re here and what they’re supposed to do. Art is just the path I’ve chosen to try and figure it out for myself. Whether I’m writing a song or a story, or acting in something, I’m really trying to touch that place where mystery and the mundane meet. It’s incredibly interesting to me, and I just keep trying to get back to that space again and again.”

Korby says, “…Whenever I play live, my job is to make people forget where they are. I want them to be absolutely present, and I want to give them something that resonates, after the show is over, for as long as possible. It’s really hard to get noticed, to draw skittish eyes your way, but once you have them, you should be trying to give people something that merits the attention. I think about that a lot… It’s not enough to distract. I want to change the world.”