Lance Andrew Leonnig – American Songwriter

contributor: Hoyt Emerson

Lance Andrew Leonnig is a bit of a recluse. As such his music usually conjurs up an image of a man sitting in the basement. There in the dark, toiling away at his guitar to tell a story in his head. A song for a girl he’s never met, for a country he doesn’t totally understand and writing music without any contrived outside influence. His latest recording, American Songwriter , is an event horizon for this mental picture.

Leonnig’s song structure is bit, well, odd. Odd is a reasonable way to describe it. He doesn’t hold true to any particular chord progression or even tempo for that matter. Instead Leonnig has a frantic style of songwriting with the acoustic guitar acting more of a rhythmic instrument then neccesarily a harmonic one. And along with Leonnig’s almost Zappaesque vocal sylings its hard to find a close comparison to his music.

Songs like “Life In The Family” and “Living Old” stroll casually enough, only to be hollowed by sudden drop outs by everything. This continues to be a stylistic choice for Leonnig more and more as the album moves along. His seemingly random, frantic guitar and song structure flourishes in “The Breath Of Death”, a five minute requiem of war past and present. The song immediately after, “Another Drink With Hank”, shows that Leonnig does have some verse/chorus ideas up his sleave and some intense guitar chops to boot.

A record of simple production, Leonnig is set all by himself with only his early 60’s Gibson acoustic guitar. This would be the way Leonnig would want it after all, and after listening to American Songwriter you can immediatley become aware of his intention. Papers rustling, chairs squeeking, sudden moments of quietness, abrupt endings to songs and the sense the this is just a man in his basement in the dark.