Songwriter of the Year to release new album
Jack Henry is a local musician who won Songwriter of the Year at KZSMs Music Awards last year. He’s about to release an album, “The Kid,” that explores the grief he has felt over the recent passing of his father Michael Corcoran, who worked for both The Austin-American Statesman as a music critic and The Austin Chronicle as a music-scene columnist. Even though his new album touches on heavy topics like death and addiction, it maintains a joyous sound that is both vibrant and relaxing. The dreamy quality of the music punctuated with expertly-played guitar and the occasional harmony add to the album’s complexity.
Another compelling element of Henry’s new album is that each song was created with his dad's last words to him in mind: “You should write more songs like Beautiful People.”
“Almost every song is an attempt at trying to make a song that’s like Beautiful People without knowing exactly what he was trying to mean. Beautiful People is a song that’s repetitive, so I wrote a song that’s repetitive. It’s a song that builds a lot, so I wrote a song that builds a lot,” Henry said. “I’m trying to deconstruct that song and pull parts out of it, and making a song out of that is a kind of way to write more songs like Beautiful People — quote, unquote — without really knowing what that means.”
Henry moved to San Marcos in 2012, when he began playing music as the “Ukulele Guy” on the Texas State campus. If one went to the university at that time, they are likely to remember the friendly stranger playing music and radiating positivity in the quad. He played in a band that had a “train kid folk kind of vibe” and a subsequent band that was “more of a rock band.” Then, in 2018, he transitioned to playing “singer-songwriter” stuff on his own.
Henry described his music as “somewhere between Sufjan Stevens and John Prine.” The latter musician makes “deep-Americana country music with an emphasis on the lyrics and [has a] kind of sipping beer on the porch” feel to it.
Henry’s previous and initial record “Kafka in a Sundress” was his first real attempt to make an album, calling his previous attempts “half-assed.” While he was starting to promote it, his father passed away suddenly.
“So that kind of ripped me out of that process,” Henry said.
But Henry is ready to dive all-in for his next album, which will be released one single at a time, starting in August.
Check out his show at the Farmer’s Market on the square at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 16, and listen to some of the new album on Patreon at patreon. com/jackhenry.
