Library Songwriter series concludes season
Dr. Eugene Clark Library
Evenings with the Songwriter, anacclaimed series from historic Dr. Eugene Clark Library, concludes its 2022 season with Brain Kalinec on the Tuesday, Nov. 29, at 7 p.m.
This monthly series is free to the public, hosted and produced by Lockhart songwriter Fletcher Clark.
Brian Kalinec is an award-winning, Houston-based Americana/folk singer-songwriter. East Texas roots have combined with urban experience to form his own particular view of the world, reflected in his songs. A native of Beaumont, Kalinec picked up the guitar at an early age and began a life spent crafting songs and nurturing songwriters. In a review in music magazine Rootsy, he has been called “a combination of Woody Guthrie, John Steinbeck, James Taylor, and Rodney Crowell in the stories he tells,” and described by Robert Bartosh of Roots Music Report as “one of the most creative songwriters from the Texas music scene.”
Kalinec has received considerable recognition here and abroad, winning events such as the Songwriter Serenade Competition, the Big Top Chautauqua Song Contest, second place in the Woody Guthrie Song Contest, and a finalist in the UK Songwriting Contest, to name but a few. Also nominated for Songwriter of the Year and Musician of the Year in the Texas Music Awards in the recent past, he has appeared at the Kerrville Folk Festival, and venues such as Uncle Calvin’s in Dallas, The Bugle Boy in La Grange, and as a featured guest on Rich Warren’s Folkstage on WFMT in Chicago.
Kalinec and his wife, Pam, own Berkalin Records, a label which is home to a number of well-respected folk and Americana artists — Matt Harlan, Jeff Talmadge, the late Tim Henderson (whose final CD was produced by Kalinec), Jim Patton and Sherry Brokus, Libby Koch, Daniel Boling, and Bernice Lewis. Kalinec is past-president of the Southwest Regional Folk Alliance, and was recently on the boards of directors for Songwriter Serenade and HoustonLive. He is currently working on a new project which will be released in early 2023.
“Since launching Evenings with the Songwriter in 2010, I have enjoyed and presented the music and lives of scores of our best songwriters, some famed and some less well-known,” Clark said. “Brian’s long and productive career has had a major impact on Texas music, not just with his songs, but with his nurturing nature through his label and other offstage work. I look forward to exploring such with him.”
When veteran Texas musician and songwriter Clark moved to Lockhart from Austin in 2008, he sought a path to introduce songwriters and their music with a depth that could not be achieved in clubs, seeking to ‘explore the art and craft of songwriting.’ Past celebrated guests have included Tish Hinojosa, Shake Russell, Don Sanders (RIP), Vince Bell, Susan Gibson, Butch Hancock, Christine Albert, Eric Taylor (RIP), Dana Cooper, Ken Gaines, Shelley King, Rex Foster, Walt Wilkins, Bianca DeLeon, Michael Hearne, plus recent local favorites Stoney Gabel and Talia Bryce, and scores more. The 2023 line-up will be announced soon.
The warmth of the acoustics and ambiance of the Lyceum of the Dr. Eugene Clark Library (the oldest continually operating library building in Texas), are credited by audiences and guests alike with the success of the series. The dedicated staff of Library Director Bertha Martinez makes possible these free monthly events on the last Tuesdays of the month (except December). Local support comes from Old Settlers Music Festival and Lockhart’s Friends of the Song.
