Kent Musick is equally comfortable playing solo acoustic gigs as fronting a full band. The Tomball native performs regularly at West End Pizza. Photo by Phil Houseal
Details:
Contact Kent Musick at 281-682-4607, www.myspace.com/kentmusick, wcmusick@yahoo.com.
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Playing Musick
by Phil Houseal
Dec 8, 2010
Kent Musick is torn twixt two musical worlds.
On the one hand, he loves the total freedom and control of playing solo acoustic gigs. On the other hand, he loves the big sound of a full band behind him. So what’s a guy to do?
Both.
“The first time you hear everything behind you it’s a great feeling,” said Musick of fronting a band. “But with a band the music has to be rehearsed. When I had a band, I started missing doing a song in a smaller listening type place where you can set it up. Then with acoustic, I liked the total control, but after awhile I was missing the big sound. I just like to be able to do both.”
Musick didn’t do any music at all for one stretch. He grew up in Tomball in a musical family (what would you expect from guy with the name Musick?), and started playing mandolin at age 5. Soon baseball exerted a stronger pull, so it wasn’t until age 18 that he picked up the guitar and mandolin in earnest. He mainly listened to bluegrass and non-mainstreamers such as John Hiatt and John Prine.
It was while attending Texas State University, pursuing his degree in exercise sports science, that he first considered playing in public.
“I had been playing about three years and barely got up the courage to pick up a guitar a college party,” he recalled. Then he sat in with a buddy at a “song swap.” That did it. “I was hooked. First thing I did was buy an amp and find me a gig.”
That first gig turned out to be just a few miles from San Marcos at the infamous Devil’s Backbone Tavern. It was a mixed blessing.
“I sat in a corner at the back of the tavern every Saturday and just played,” he said. “I watched hippies, bikers, and cowboys do their thing until they hit the floor.”
After several months of that dues-paying experience, Musick discovered that what first excited him, soon smothered him.
“Clubs want to put you in dark corner and not play too loud. Half the people aren’t even listening.”
So Musick has moved on and is focusing on writing and performing his original Americana tunes. He finds his inspiration playing with other musicians at jam sessions, regularly picking along at Luckenbach and Silver Creek. He often leaves those guitar swaps filled with new ideas.
“To focus on your own writing means you have to listen more. You don’t rip off what they are doing, but they’ll sing a song and then I’ll leave with something winding up in my head.”
What comes first... the words or the music?
“I used to write words first, then find guitar chords,” he said. “But lately I’m trying to study guitar, so now I’m coming up with more melodies on guitar, and writing over that. But I still do both.”
Working around his day job at the HCMH Wellness Center, Musick plays a solo acoustic act most Fridays at West End Pizza. He is getting back in “band” mode, open to putting something together that meets his musical sensibilities. He hopes to cut 10 or 15 songs on a CD soon.
“It’s not something I’m going to force, but I’d like to find a like-minded group of guys. I’d prefer a band like The Eagles, where everyone is writing, and anyone can come in with a song.”
While Musick bounces between playing solo and with a band, there’s another area where he has a less difficult choice.
“When people ask me what kind of music I play, I use that line from The Blues Brothers movie. I tell them, both country and western.”