Michigan singer-songwriter Sam Corbin: The Local Spins Artist Spotlight (podcast, video)

A solo artist who also performs with Jen Sygit and the rootsy Americana band Lincoln County Process, Corbin is a vibrant product of Michigan’s folk music scene. He plays Grand Rapids’ Wine, Beer and Food Fest this weekend.

 

Sam Corbin has a simple but effective modus operandi for crafting his rootsy folk and Americana tunes.

“I like to write what I know,” the guitarist and singer offers.

That approach has served him well in a burgeoning career within the region’s folk scene, another uniquely talented artist springing from mid-Michigan’s Earthwork Music collective.

“I’ve always enjoyed playing and I’ve always enjoyed writing. It doesn’t always come natural to me to write – it takes me a long time to write – but I really enjoy it,” explain the Lansing native and Holt resident, who released his most recent solo album, “Michigan’s Waltz,” in 2009.

“It’s mostly been personal experiences. I write a lot of traveling tunes, a lot of traveling songs. I spend most of the time in the car, driving from town to town, so a lot of my songs end up being that kind of thing.”

FROM SOLO ARTIST TO FIRING THINGS UP WITH A FULL BAND

That traveling in recent years has involved solo shows, duo performances with another well-known Lansing-area artist, singer Jen Sygit, as well as their full-bore roots-rock/alt-country/American band Lincoln County Process, which also features bassist Joe VanAcker and drummer Geoff Ian Lewis.

To say it’s a hectic schedule might be an understatement: Corbin plays a half-dozen gigs in multiple locations this weekend, including nightly performances at the International Wine, Beer and Food Festival at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids. (Check the bottom of this post for more information about that and a chance to win tickets to the event.)

On Wednesday, Corbin traveled to downtown Grand Rapids for Local Spins Live, performing a new song, “The Raging Storm” on the air at News Talk 1340 AM (WJRW). Listen to the show podcast here and watch a video of that exclusive performance below.

The tune eventually is slated to show up on Corbin’s next solo album, which he hopes to release by next spring with help from Ann Arbor percussionist Billy Harrington and “more great Michigan artists to fill in the other gaps.”

“It’s definitely still similar to what I’m doing which is folk/roots/Americana, kind of a mix of a lot of styles,” Corbin says of the new project.

“My last album, ‘Michigan’s Waltz,’ had a little more of a country vibe. I had some people playing pedal steel and fiddle and that kind of thing. This (new album) is going to be a little more of the rootsy and bluesy feel.”

He adds: “We both love (award-winning producer/musician) T Bone Burnett and we’ll see if we can go that style.”

For Corbin, it’s the next stop in a musical journey that began when he picked up a guitar at 16, inspired in part by the music of Bob Dylan. These days, he says, he’s immersed himself in everything from the soulful strains of Sam Cooke to the bluesy vibe of Susan Tedeschi and the Tedeschi Trucks Band.

Credit Michigan’s folk music community for inspiring his songwriting and musicianship, too.

SHAPED BY THE MICHIGAN MUSIC SCENE … AND ELDERLY INSTRUMENTS

“The Michigan music scene has shaped me – all the diverse music that comes out of it and all the people I look to,” says Corbin, who’s planning to move to Ann Arbor with his wife, Sayre. “Michigan has done a lot with folk music and roots music. In Lansing where I live, Elderly Instruments is a big part of that. Their work force is all musicians. It’s all string instruments there and there’s a lot of folk music coming out of there, and it just inspires generation after generation, and I think that’s where I got it from.”

He’s also grown as a musician by playing the past few years with his bandmates in Lincoln County Process, which integrates originals into its sets along with favorites by Dylan, Tom Waits, Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris.

“It really was a learning experience trying to play in a group. I got used to playing solo so I would make my own arrangements up as I go,” he says. “So now, I’m still learning how to play in a group, but it’s a lot of fun with the camaraderie, and obviously, with great musicians.”

Corbin performs solo from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday, on the Cider House Music Stage at this weekend’s International Wine, Beer & Food Festival at DeVos Place in downtown Grand Rapids. Tickets to the festival – the Midwest’s largest wine and beer tasting event with 1,200-plus wines and 200-plus beers – are $15 for Thursday; $20 Friday and Saturday.

Better yet, the first person to email me at jsinkevics@gmail.com. with “Wine, Beer & Food” in the subject field will win a pair of tickets to this weekend’s show, courtesy of Local Spins.

Corbin also plays a duo show with Sygit at Rockford Brewing Co. in Rockford on Dec. 20 and a full band show with Lincoln County Process at New Holland Brewing in Holland on Dec. 27. For more information about the singer, visit his official website at samcorbin.com.

Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
Copyright 2013, Spins on Music