Bearing the burden

Singer Brett Dennen on drawing, touring and giving back

PUBLISHED by Boston Metro

Singer-songwriter Brett Dennen is more than just the next Dave Matthews, as he is often described. He’s a mountain man with the voice of a jazz singer, who decorates his guitars with Sharpies and shimmies his hips onstage as he smiles bashfully at the audience. We met with him earlier this summer.



Q: Did you draw that elephant on your guitar?
A: Yes, I did.

Q: What other pictures do you have?
A: I’ve done tons of them. A friend of mine had this photograph of the dock that he lives on in Chesapeake Bay with a sailboat on it, so I did that. I once did one of a woman in the desert holding a cow skull.

Q: How is touring with OAR?
A: The nice thing about their crowd is they have a pretty strong college following. It seems like they’re the kind of people who pass CDs around.

Q: Are you out to change the world with your music?
A: I would like to be a part of many people changing the world. I would like to be the part that inspires people. I want to highlight things in the world that need to be spoken about, or people that need to be given the microphone.

Q: Is that where your practice of having nonprofit organizations set up booths at your shows, and your Love Speaks project, comes from?
A: It does. Before I was a musician full-time, I was working in nonprofits. Writing about change in music is one thing, but actually having it involved in your life is another. A couple years into playing music full-time, I started to feel like I was lacking the latter. So we bring nonprofits to our shows and give them a chance to speak with the audience.

Q: How do you stay attached to home when you’re out touring?
A: The only tangible thing I have is a little piece of wood that my dad made for me. He got it from a bristlecone pine forest in the White Mountains [of California] near where I grew up. It’s a little piece he cut and shellacked and wrote “Home” on it. So I stick that to my peddle board.

OAR
with Brett Dennen
Friday, 7 p.m.
Bank of America Pavillion
290 Northern Ave., Boston
MBTA: Silver Line to World Trade Center
$35-$80, 617-931-2000
www.livenation.com