ANDREW LYNCH

Andrew Lynch is a singer/songwriter/guitar player whose music could be described as grassy americana with a touch of funky jazz. His riff-based percussive guitar style and crisp lyrical wit sometimes make you want to move, and sometimes make you want to sit down and think...or drink. Andrew's music digs deep into folk, blues, bluegrass, roots and traditional Irish music, creating a style that brings timeless writing, catchy melodic lines, percussive and syncopated rhythms into a sonic blend still undefined by any genre. His writing, developed by adventures as a traveler, ranges from poetic and introspective to witty and silly.

Andrew's exposure to music started with dad playing violin while mom played the piano and guests at St Patrick's day parties were made to sing traditional Irish songs half drunk on whiskey and punch at the Lynch's home in Ireland. Being forced to take violin lessons only made the neighbors wonder who was torturing a cat when he would practice, and piano lessons made Andrew's parents angry when despite natural talent and a musical ear he never prepared for a lesson. When his family moved to Ohio he was introduced to an entirely different spectrum of music including bluegrass and Civil War songs, many of which were easy enough to blow on a harmonica...Andrew's first freely chosen instrument.

At University, banging on bongos turned into a position in the African Ensemble, as well as band called "Don't Eat The Bluegrass" that would play regularly at the local cafe and got a bit of college radio airtime. It wasn't long before he developed a guitar habit that would keep him from expending all his creative energy on building models in architecture school. Travelling and exploring during studies abroad engendered a need for release which in turn bred an arsenal of songs written and performed in multiple countries where Andrew developed his performing skills busking and playing clubs.

After graduation he moved [more like ran away screaming] from the Midwest and landed in a tourist town on Lake Tahoe for long enough to realize that despite the bitchin' snowboard season there was no real music scene or any architecture jobs there. And because nearby San Francisco was not the Haight-Ashbury hippie haven he had hoped for, but more of a silicon valley vacuous concrete jungle with crazy people bleeding on the tram, he moved up to Portland, Oregon instead where creative people don't much feel like working and there never has been nor ever will be a decent economy.

Struggling with his artist and musician buddies in Portland, Andrew expanded his musical talents, formed a couple of bands, and did some recording. Although some of his musician friends moved on to record labels, Andrew continues to pursue his passion for architecture in order to feed himself, while finding time to develop his music to feed the soul. Over the last decade Andrew has written hours upon hours of original music and is now rehearsing with a new band as well as an acoustic duo to play out around Portland, and maybe even put down an album.