Andrew Vladeck.  He’s a boy with a banjo from New York City, strolling at his own speed across the country from one gig to the next.  With rust-colored hair and a thoughtful, deliberate choice of words, he beckons you closer.  He wants to tell you a story and he’s going to let his amped-up banjo do most of the talking.

It’s difficult to rip your attention away from the olde tyme feel and sound of harmonica and banjo.  But it’s Vladeck’s lyrical impact and the aftershock thereof that really tears into the listener.

Take his award-winning piece “The Songs You Inspire.”  Upon first listen, you know that he’s bad mouthing someone who done him wrong.  But swish the lyrics around in your mouth for a moment and realize how he’s admitting that is he a co-conspirator in the unhappiness: “The songs you inspire, you don’t deserve.  Turn it up louder to hear the words.  They’re my gift.  They’re my curse.  All the songs you inspire.”

But Vladeck, who has dedicated his life to song and art, was not considered “musically gifted” back in the day.  Despite the fact that his family owned three jukeboxes and loved music, Vladeck says he couldn’t play music to save his life.

“I wasn’t allowed to sing in the family car,” Vladeck, now living in Brooklyn, NY, recalls.  “I would audition for voice lessons and they would never give them to me.  I was just incredibly unskilled.  And I just stubbornly rammed it through.  If you really want to do something, you have to find a way.”

Vladeck was faithful to the guitar until college, when he started plucking away on the banjo.  He took some lessons while studying History at Columbia.  Over time, he developed his own voice and style of music which calls to mind Dylan’s style in many ways.

“My music is the hardest thing to break down – it’s so sacred,” Vladeck says. “But it’s in the Americana songster, earnest kind of genre.  My ideas come from my surroundings in New York City and they come from what I observe.  I was a visual artist to begin with and try to take in as much as I can.”

Vladeck does his best to stay intimately in touch with the world around him.  A former Urban Park Ranger, he fancies going for long bike rides to achieve a feeling of freedom and floating which in turn inspires creativity.  But even with his repertoire, Vladeck admits to having a favorite song.

“In the past two years, I’ve developed a style that I think is sonically fresh in that it incorporates good song writing with a new style of instrumentation.  Pulling the banjo and other instruments into a more modern sound.  A song that does that for me is ‘Coney Island.’  To me, it combines good song writing with a good melody and an interesting style. “

Although he focuses on being a solo artist, Vladeck is in two other bands ~ The Honey Brothers (whom we first featured in Pulse back in December of ’06) and Balthrop, Alabama.  In upcoming months, he’ll be heading back into the studio with The Honey Brothers, but is also touring across this fine nation to promote his new record The Wheel, which was released in June 2009.  But whether he’s on the road or in the studio, Vladeck is always pondering the listeners.

“I hope that my listeners feel companionship,” Vladeck says. “That they’re listening to someone that they can relate to.”

Andrew will be at TT the Bear’s on November 5, so be sure to check him out ~ and for more info, head to www.andrewvladeck.com.