Buck Meek, guitarist from the band Big Thief, will play songs from his solo project at 8 p.m. April 2 at the Bishop. Meek will open for singer-songwriter Margaret Glaspy.
Meek and his band will share tunes from Meek's self-titled debut album, which will be released on May 18. Meek will also play the song “Sam Bridges,” which was featured on his first two solo albums — "Live from a Volcano" released on Bandcamp in 2013 and "Heart was Beat" released in 2015 on Bandcamp. In addition to the songs mentioned above, songs from Meek's album set to come out after the self-titled debut will also be shared.
“I’m going to be touring a lot with my solo project and bringing these songs to the world, in addition to touring with Big Thief,” Meek said.
Meek is currently on tour in Southern and Midwestern states including Arizona, New Mexico and Illinois. He recently made a stop in Austin, Texas, to play five shows at the South by Southwest Music Festival.
Meek recorded the new self-titled album with a band he's been working with for the last few years in New York City.
"They are some of my favorite players in the world," Meek said.
Meek’s good friend Matt Davidson, from the song project Twain, plays bass in the band.
“He is actually one of my favorite artists and has toured with Big Thief,” Meek said. “He has also played in Big Thief.”
Meek said Adam Brisbin plays guitar in the band and is probably his favorite guitar player. Austin Vaughn plays the drums, Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief sings backup vocals on the to-be-released album, and Meek’s brother, Dylan Meek, plays the piano on the song “Cannonball!”.
"Even though Buck Meek's work with Big Thief has taken him far away from his Texas home, the lead single from his self-titled debut album sounds as if it echoes out from the state's hill country," NPR Music writer Benjamin Naddaff-Hafrey said in a recent review.
Meek grew up in Wimberley, Texas, a small town 45 minutes southwest of Austin.
Meek's father, Bill Meek, is a glass sculptor who had an art studio in Wimberley. The studio was a part of the Wimberly creative community, Meek said.
“I was surrounded by artists and musicians as a kid who I looked up to,” Meek said.
Meek said Wimberley is a really special town in Texas.
“A lot of people from the Austin music scene have moved out to Wimberley over the years," Meek said.
Members from the country bands The Flatlanders and Bob Wills’ band have homes in Wimberley. Meek also said lots of bluegrass, blues and and manouche jazz players live in Wimberley.
Meek started playing manouche jazz, the music of Belgian-born jazz guitarist and composer Django Reinhardt, in high school. A guitarist living in Wimberley named Django Porter took Buck under his wing and taught him about this type of music Meek said.
"I got deep into manouche jazz and through that my interest opened into swing and New Orleans jazz and that's what led me to apply to Berklee to continue my studies in jazz," Meek said.
Meek went to the Berklee College of Music to study guitar where his favorite professor was David Tronzo, Meek said. Tronzo teaches a slide guitar lab at Berklee in which Meek learned basic slide guitar skills and various techniques for modern jazz and modern classical music Tronzo said.
"I recall that Andrew was a very enthusiastic and hardworking student," Tronzo said.
After Berklee, Meek moved to New York City where, in 2012, he formed the band Big Thief with Adrianne Lenker, the lead singer and songwriter of Big Thief.
“We really developed our relationship through music,” Meek said. “We sat together and played guitar on the stoop outside our apartments in Brooklyn and learned songs and it evolved into duo.”
Meek said the two started booking tours as the duo Adrianne Lenker and Buck Meek. At that time they were singing a combination of both of their material. Meek said he sang his songs while Lenker backed him up on guitar and vice versa.
Meek said in 2014 the duo decided to split their projects because they seemed to be going in different directions sonically.
"Adrianne was starting to write heavier music with electric guitar and so we split our projects,”Meek said.
Lenker’s project was Big Thief. Meek said he continued to play guitar for Big Thief and also put his own band together.
Meek said the reason why he plays music is music is a form of reflection for him and allows him to process emotions that can seem abstract until he puts them into the form of music.
“There is a catharsis of being able to express the emotions experienced in this existence and learn from it,” Meek said.
Meek's expressive style of playing guitar is a way to move energy Meek said. Meek said he has to keep himself in check because there was a time he got too wild and kept throwing his neck out.
“I would hope that any music that comes out of my instrument is coming from within, and the way I feel is it comes from the source and travels through my body,” Meek said. “It is almost like a synesthesia of feeling the notes."
