Friday, October 13th was a lucky day for Kendell Marvel as his debut album, ‘Lowdown and Lonesome‘ was released. “It’s a very believable record” as Marvel describes since he wrote nine out of the ten tracks. The songs are brutally honest and very relatable. Marvel is known around Nashville as a songwriter but his original dream was to be a performer. He has performed his whole life, so making the transition from songwriter to artist was seamless. The album was built around the concept of the title track. Marvel took older unrecorded songs and wrote a couple of new ones with the album in mind.
Marvel is no stranger in Music City, being a veteran songwriter in Nashville has allowed for some big names to record his work. When asked what song he was most proud of Marvel said, ‘Either Way,’ recorded by Chris Stapleton, or ‘Twang’ which George Strait took and recorded. When asked about writing songs and having other artists record them, Marvel said, “Just to have George Strait sing one of your songs is a pretty big high to be on. It’s an honor anytime someone wants to sing your work. Im proud of it… have at it.” He talked about what an honorable feeling it is to hear a song he wrote on the radio. He said, “it never gets old and anybody that says it does is jaded or lying.”
With a song catalog as big as Marvel’s, it was interesting to find that most of his influences were in outlaw country. His songwriting and performances were greatly impacted by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams Jr. and Kris Kristofferson. These influences are apparent in his music with his words and melodies. What is also apparent is Marvel’s love for performing. He’s been performing for a very long time and says that he really is enjoying singing his newer material. Any new songs off of ‘Lowdown and Lonesome’ are fun to perform because he “hasn’t burnt himself out on them yet.” ‘Drinkin’ My Baby Goodbye’ and ‘Hurtin’ Gets Hard’ are both described by Marvel as “country as hell” and he’s excited to for everyone to hear them, but mostly excited to play them live.
If you’re in the Nashville area, you can catch Kendell Marvel once a month at his residency at The Exit/In. When looking for an outlet to expose him as an artist and to perform his new record, he and his manager found The Exit/In, an epic club that can hold about 500 people. Marvel’s first show featured himself, Jamey Johnson, Alison Krauss and Randy Houser. It was such a success that the club owner wanted him back once a month for the Honky Tonk Experience. Marvel says, “each night you never know who’s going to show up. But there is always some pretty good celebrities walking through the door… It is a historic venue and the artists don’t sing their own songs. They get to sing covers.” The artists come in and sing classics, the crowd favorites and songs that they just love to sing. The Honky Tonk Experience features Kendell Marvel and many other big names one night a month and would definitely be something to check out! Hopefully, he will be playing some of his new songs from ‘Lowdown and Lonesome.’
We’d like to thank Kendell for taking the time to speak with us about his debut album as it’s an amazing piece of work. You can download ‘Lowdown and Lonesome’ here. Also, make sure to follow along with his journey on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Main photo credit: Jacob Robert