Jeff Black - Songcrafter of Fine Portraits of American Life

I have been a fan of Jeff Black’s songwriting for many years. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri and grew up in Liberty, Missouri. In the 1980’s Black began performing at Blayney's, a blues club here in Kansas City where he also worked as a bouncer. Jeff began touring and eventually relocated to Nashville where he re-connected with Kansas City friend, Iris Dement lending some backing vocals on DeMent's 1992 debut album, Infamous Angel).

Black's own first album, Birmingham Road, was recorded with the members of the band Wilco, minus lead singer, Jeff Tweedy. Those songs have been described as "fine portraits of American life without the sappiness or self-consciousness often attributed to the singer/songwriter genre.”

Sam Bush has championed him with recording many of his songs including "Same Ol' River" and "King Of The World". Jeff co-wrote the title track to Sam's Grammy nominated album "Circles Around Me". His songs appear on recordings by Alison Krauss, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Douglas, Dierks Bently, John Oates, Blackhawk, Jo-el Sonnier and the soundtracks of "The Thing Called Love" The acclaimed PBS documentary "The Appalachians" and Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize Winner "Steel City". WUMB Boston listeners voted Black one of the top 100 Folk artists of the last 25 years.

His intimate live shows provide a master class in songcraft appreciation, tempo and audience interaction. After a two year pandemic induced hiatus, I was finally able to welcome Jeff back into the KKFI studios for a sit down conversation and private mini concert in support of some recent Midwest gigs. We talked about music education, or the lack thereof, the pandemic, of course, collaboration, mentorship and the value (or not) of songwriting workshops.

Enjoy this musical conversation and performance with the lyrical and very talented Jeff Black.