Kodac Harrison

Beatnik/ The American songwriter Kodac Harrison Comes

Blues-Poet With the Courage to be Emotional

The good-natured rogue, Kodac Harrison comes from a rough, raw place. When the American songwriter performs spoken word or sings in his scratchy baritone, he bares his soul and exposes the essence of his warm humanity. He is a man who hides nothing.
Kodac Harrison is a song-poet of a dying breed in the U.S.A. This lovable rogue, to his credit, has the courage to show hurt and to exhibit human emotion. The story-tellers songs and words create a poetic atmosphere and tell of a world which is often filled with pain, but his tales always reveal a glimpse of light, a ray of hope.
He calls his music “Beatnik Blues” and his soulful blues-voice cuts like a cross between Tom Waits and Howlin’ Wolf. Accompanying himself on guitar, he is melancholy like Leonard Cohen. In the background often are one or two sweet and sentimentally beautiful violins or a saxophone squealing like a breaking automobile.*

Warm and Raw

Kodac Harrison’s lyrics are literature, are poetry. Maybe it’s a pity, but sometimes the words are almost better without music; simply with his warm, raw, magnificent speaking voice.
Udo Hinz, Goettinger Tageblatt, Goettingen, Germany, 10/26/00

(the caption under the photo says “Melancholy Like Leonard Cohen: Kodac Harrison”)


*This translation of the following review leaves out the middle part (researched from Kodac’s web page) about him growing up slowly in Jackson, Ga. (living in the same house for the first 18 years of his life) before traveling around the country living in New Orleans, California, West Virginia and New York City before moving to Atlanta.
- Goettinger Tageblatt

WORDS DIRECTLY FROM THE SOUL OF THE SINGING POET
"Paint Your Poetry": Kodac Harrison and George Bishop visit Goettinger
Noergelbuff

Kodac Harrison was in town! And his visit was among the best
musical events that Goettingen has offered this year. More or less
unnoticed by the local public, he delivered, along with saxophonist
George Bishop, a concert at the Noergelbuff that made the lives of
those who were there a little bit richer.

The man’s baritone creates the atmosphere and he delivered the most
fitting description of his own work with the song "Paint Your Poetry."*
Kodac paints pictures, using a colorful array of tones from the happiest to the
saddest. He paints stories about love and waitresses, about diamonds and dirt.

He moved around the stage with eyes closed, dignifying each sound
with a movement - his worn tennis shoes dictating his bent dance steps.
While dancing, the singing poet ranted and raved his paintings into
the microphone, competing with the saxophone for the most beautiful
tone - win some, lose some.

When his voice drops to a deep intensity, which always brings
comparisons with Tom Waits, his words seem to come directly from his
soul creating a goosebumps atmosphere and well deserved applause. There
was also well deserved acknowledgement of George Bishop after every piece
by Kodac and the audience, sometimes even during the songs.
The shy seeming second man on the stage breathed through his instrument
while his audience held their breath. In "Blues for Louise" he
brought forth magical tones from his horn that silenced not only the
audience but also Harrison. Kodac smiles happily as he gives the instrumentalist
room to surge to the forefront.

Kodac Harrison was in town! And it is just these visits which, even
though they are rare, leave us just a little less sad. Happy are those
who don't know what they have missed, who don’t know what they will
have to wait until his next visit to experience.

Markus Scharf, Goettinger Tageblatt, Saturday, May 24th, 2003

*The German reviewer misinterpreted the title of Kodac’s song, “Paint Your Portrait”,
so Kodac did not describe his own music, but the reviewer did with his misinterpretation.
- Goettinger Tagblatt

Musician and spoken-word artist Kodac Harrison is internationally known for his vibrant character studies and clever word play. His seventh CD, Portraits and Passages, captures his at his best, spinning tales of travel both real and imagined. Lee Smith, Creative Loafing Atlanta

While too many of his peers, longtime veterans of the scene, have given up or stay content to go through the same familiar motions they always have, Kodac Harrison keeps finding new, unconventional avenues to get his art across. Jeff Clark, Stomp and Stammer.

Imagine a Southern Tom Waits or a rural Leonard Cohen. That's as close as we can come to a nut-shell description of the music of Kodac Harrison, a genuinely gifted artist and one of the southeast's musical treasures.
Creative Loafing, Savannah, Ga.

You gotta hand it to Harrison; his refusal to heed contemporary trends has lent him a certain authenticity that many lesser talents would kill for. Drawing from the miscreant singer-songwriter tradition of early Tom Waits and Warren Zevon, his cautionary urban tales ring true and rock hard. Creative Loafing, Atlanta, Ga.

Kodac Harrison-The Blue Plate Special man works poetry and spoken word in with his folk-soul to produce music of rare intelligence and passion. An unforgettable performer and a local hero of sorts, Harrison's husky voice and presence can captivate even in the midst of the crowds. Hal Horowitz, Creative Loafing, Atlanta, Ga.

Kodac Harrison introduced himself and started to play. Wow! Bluesy and poetic, he puts on a show. He dances, he sings, and gets you lost in the rhythm of his music. Every once in a while, in the midst of your toe tapping, you might actually notice a lyric. Some of them just jump out at you and scream. You hear spoken word and bluesy rhythms, then all of a sudden...BAM! He rocks out and slaps you in the face.
Nykki Lawstuen, Creative Loafing Savannah, Ga.

Kodac Harrison's Songtexte sind Literatur, sind Gedichte.
Kodac Harrison's lyrics are literature, are poetry.
Udo Hinz, Goettinger Tageblatt, Germany

- Assorted Publications