There is hardly a chance that you haven’t already heard or seen Ken Stringfellow performing somewhere. He is kind of omnipresent in the guitar-driven music scene, but without getting noticed too much. Which is a pity, as Stringfellow – just a few examples – sings beautiful background vocals in R.E.M. shows, plays keyboard on 2006 Snow Patrol album, is the head of the US-alternative rock group The Posies and now starts a new band called The Disciplines. From time to time, the Hollywood-born and now Paris-based songwriter still does his lovely little solo tours, playing melancholic classic-indie-songs. There couldn’t be more difference between Five-Star-Hotel-standard on R.E.M. tours and the way he travels by himself, which is mostly sleeping in youth hostels and complaining about those which charge extra fees on towels (more to be read on his blog on www.kenstringfellow.com). Watching Stringfellow play live is always an expect-the-unexpected-thing to do. It can easily happen that he walks all through the club, climbs on the bar, sings and plays unamplified and covers Sinatra songs with the help of people from the audience who cannot really sing. Some people call him “Power Pop Ken”. They are certainly not wrong, but there is also “Singer/Songwriter Ken”, “Rock Ken” and even “Skate Punk Ken”, as he played with Lagwagon in 1997.

kenstringfellow.com