Korby Lenker

Just dropped a new episode of the ‪@MorseCodePodcast‬ with East Nashville songwriter Allen Thompson.

We talked about ‪@OfficialToddSnider‬ — what he meant to both of us, what it felt like to lose him, and how his spirit still shapes the way we try to live and make music. Allen shared stories I’d never heard before, and it hit me in the heart.

Allen also played a gorgeous live version of “Foolish and Blue” with Ben Classen on trumpet. Worth your time.

🎙 Full episode → https://youtu.be/I2Xk_LOX0Ho
🎶 Live song → https://youtu.be/sQuRcq4uQ1g

#ToddSnider #AllenThompson #EastNashville #TheMorseCodePodcast #SongwriterLife #RanchVovo

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 3

Korby Lenker

Can we agree there just aren't enough piano covers of Gillian Welch songs? Mine just posted 👉 https://youtu.be/4G2-vgrXQpM.
I took a stab at my favorite on the Woodland record, Hashtag. My wife Randa sang harms. She was pretty nervous but I think she did great. Drop her a comment of encouragement if you feel it!

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 7

Korby Lenker

My TV pilot MORSE CODE just premiered! https://youtu.be/d_FvpyIvYTg
It’s funny and sad and filled with music from Sierra Ferrell, Gillian Welch, John Prine, and more. I’ve lived in East Nashville for twenty years & wanted to tell a story our community would recognize. It took me and an army of people about 8 years to make.


A little backstory in case you’re interested.
Thank you to everyone who has believed in me — not just the Morse Code project but by coming to a show, buying a CD or a copy of vinyl, kickstarting one of my 8 albums, reading my first book Medium Hero… honestly it’s been a really hard way to make a living (insert laugh emoji here). When I think back to those early days when I was about to graduate from college and it was like “do you really think you can do this?” I had no idea what I was getting into. How insanely unstable it all was.

BUT it has been a first-rate, five-star, diamond-membership adventure — which was what I was in it for. I think about all the nights alone in weird places, the people I met, some I can’t remember their names and some like Dino and Leslie (see below) are friends to this day. The spending a night at the jail at the Heathrow airport, hitchiking down the Al-can highway through the Yukon territory, winning first place at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival contest (and a few others but let’s not be douchey about it), and of course, these songs and stories, that could only have come from me. No I am not famous or rich and whenever young singer-songwriters ask me for advice I’m never sure what to say, but the prioritization of creative freedom, coupled with an incessant and sometimes unreasonable desire to be me as best I understood — was a gift to myself I didn’t fully appreciate when I set out all those years ago.

I’m in a new chapter now and it feels utterly fantastic. For two reasons. One is, I went so hard for so long that I’ll never have to wonder what it might have been like if I jumped without looking. Boy did I jump. I moved to Nashville twenty years ago — after releasing several albums in the Pacific Northwest — because I wanted to know what it would be like to be sick of touring. I couldn’t imagine! All I wanted to do was perform over and over again — anywhere, for anyone — the songs I wrote on the instruments I had spent so much time learning how to play. Nothing else mattered.

Well, wonder of wonders, I reached my goal. After ten years and several hundred shows, it happened. I finally got a little sick of touring. Touring, not playing. Sharing my music with other people is something I won’t ever take for granted. I never feel more like myself than when I’m playing and singing songs live on a stage. But touring is, minus the 2 hours you’re actually performing, incredibly dull. So boring! You always have to be somewhere. You never get to read or eat slowly or take a bath or, have a relationship.

All of that was reason one. Reason two is, the habit of seeking out what was interesting to me and coupling that habit to a profitable end, was an approach to living that will continue to serve me. I mean I’m doing it right now.

I am only good at being me, and now that I’m not trying to tour, I have more time to do the things that feed my soul. Reading and writing, and playing music. That was always the plan. Play shows and get into as much trouble as possible until my mid-forties, then slow down and start writing, in earnest.

And this is just my professional life. My family life is the most important thing to me by far and, to my surprise, is way more fulfilling than an audience of any size.

So, I started this pivot when I wrote the first version of Morse Code back in 2018. I thought: what if I could convey some of the particular charms and foibles of my chosen vocation in a new medium — one that, if successful, would allow me to continue in a mode where I could be as creative as possible without having to travel so much? That was the goal, then and now.

Maybe we’ll make more episodes of Morse Code. Maybe we’ll sell the show. Maybe I’ll produce a thousand more episodes of the Morse Code Podcast and die having merely created a conversational documentary of the East Nashville indie music scene circa 2022 — 2030. Who knows? It’s all an adventure. I wake up everyday with the privilege, challenge and responsibility of making the world new, and infusing it with meaning — for myself and for you maybe — with art.

I’m excited to announce we are premiering our award-winning Morse Code Pilot next Sunday November 9th at 4pm central, on YouTube. The show features Sierra Ferrell, with music from John Prine, Gillian Welch, iconic locations throughout Nashville — Robert’s Western Wear, Dino’s, The Ryman Auditorium, Sip Cafe, and more. A lot of people have asked me how they could watch the show. Now you can.

The adventure continues.

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1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 13

Korby Lenker

Hiii! New lyric video for my new song Yakima out NOW! 👉 https://youtu.be/tskfADkMZFc I didn't make a visualizer because I have an 8-month-old and she's at that phase where she's trying to stick her fingers into the electric sockets. It's a full-time job keeping these little people safe!

Thankfully I had a few hours this weekend so I made a lyric video for Yakima which was fun and annoying to make, but hopefully just fun on the watching side. Be sure to stream Yakima on Spotify and add it to your favorite playlist, but only if you like it, no charity! Thanks for being here!

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4 months ago | [YT] | 9

Korby Lenker

The Official Music Video for "This Love" is here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BoyV...
It’s 3 minutes long, weird and beautiful , and features three distinct genres — Western, Mod-sixties, and Dystopian — woven into a story about the difference between imagined love and real love.

I’ve spent most of my life making up songs and stories, chasing meaning through metaphor. But lately I’m more interested in what art points to — the daily life where love actually lives.

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6 months ago | [YT] | 4

Korby Lenker

Excited to share! My cover of "There's a Rhythmn" by Bon Iver is now out on spotify! Thank you for all the nice comments and encouragement on the video I made. I call it found object folk because I turned my old merchbox into a kickdrum:) bit.ly/3Eqtd4q

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6 months ago | [YT] | 5

Korby Lenker

How I feel after finishing the new lyric video for THIS LOVE, my newest song. https://youtu.be/9U82uJtZJ0Q. It was supposed to take one day. It took four 😳. Give it a watch and let me know if it makes you feel hopeful. Or makes you feel anything! Like the song, the video is very personal, and even features a surprise grand finale that I can't believe my wife said yes to.

6 months ago | [YT] | 7

Korby Lenker

Hi everybody! my new single THIS LOVE just dropped today and is available on the normal places. Find it on spotify (just search korby this love) or click here to be one of the very first to see the visualizer ==> https://youtu.be/YfZ81G2HOXg

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7 months ago | [YT] | 12

Korby Lenker

"There's a rhythmn, there's a rhythmn..." This song has been marching in circles in my head all month so I thought I'd see if I could do it justice. My cover of the new Bon Iver just posted! => https://youtu.be/sxCIw4uzOHo. I did the singing and played piano, bass, acoustic guitar, suitcase drums, percussion annnnd fiddle. Check it out and let me know what you think!

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7 months ago | [YT] | 8

Korby Lenker

Acoustic Live version of Meet Me at the End of the World just dropped featuring Anthony da Costa. https://youtu.be/7uYdume3bxM Watch the video and see that it's *actually* live and not from Giacomo Turro school of pretend lol. I mean I would never make those faces on purpose.

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7 months ago | [YT] | 6