Take a creaky, pre-Civil War house in Loudoun County, a closet secreted beneath the staircase and a trembling youngster tempted to delve into the unknown. Once he inched past the spider webs and reached into the blackness, his fingertips touched a package. Slowly drawing it into the light, he opened it cautiously. Inside was a guitar he never knew existed, one untouched for two decades. That discovery cemented the path Justin Trawick would follow.
This week the singer-songwriter and band frontman releases his latest album, “After All Is Said and Done,” at the Iota Club and Cafe in Arlington. From there he heads for California with a stop along the way in New Orleans to participate in a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina victims, an ongoing need.
During the years that have elapsed since he discovered the guitar, Trawick has made a name for himself writing and performing his distinctive “urban folk rock” in solo acoustic venues and with the Justin Trawick Group. Along the way, he has performed locally in such places as the 9:30 Club and the Kennedy Center and at New York’s Knitting Factory, World Cafe Live in Philadelphia and Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles. Among the nationally known artists for whom he has opened are Bob Schneider, Pat Green, the Gourds, Last Train Home and Corey Harris.
“I’ve always admired the style of Bob Schneider, of Austin, Texas, because each song he plays is different from the rest,” Trawick said. “His concerts include country, folk, rap, rock and bluegrass. I do the same thing. In this ADD world, I get bored and audiences dig variety instead of listening to an entire show of the same kind of music, so we play fast numbers, bluegrass, R&R and lots of other styles. The audience appreciates that and comes back for more.”
Trawick played sax in middle school, graduating to acoustic guitar after appropriating the one his father had played in college and stored in the closet for many years. At Longwood College, he majored in communications, was the school’s staff photographer and played in every musical group on campus. After a girlfriend advised him to stop singing for lack of a good voice, he concentrated on leading the band and composing. But when she became the band’s singer, it was not long before he found it too surreal to listen to her sing the lyrics that exposed his own thoughts.
Striking out on his own, Trawick ignored the girlfriend’s advice. Today he sings the lyrics that come from his heart in the voice he believes has greatly improved since she passed judgment on it. Sometimes the stories encapsulate his own hardships and lost loves; others delve into Americana and universal experiences.
When he is not performing in an intimate setting backed only by a bassist, he rocks out with his group of four or five regulars, occasionally incorporating members of his “extended family,” a talented stable of musicians whose instruments include trumpet, fiddle and banjo. To spice up the mix, he frequently invites D.C. rappers and hip-hop artists to sit in, thereby adorning his traditional show with pizzazz and unexpected surprises.
“As an independent musician who puts on great live shows, I want audiences out there who haven’t yet heard me to discover that I exist,” he said. “I think I have a refreshing show and write original music that has a place today. I’m lucky to have played in all the local venues and to be in a place now where I’m branching out in many other directions.”
