Andrew Vladeck

Andrew Vladeck is biking over the Manhattan Bridge with a banjo on his back to his monthly performance in the Lower East Side.  From the sound of it, you can tell he has been tinkering with the engine, honing his well-crafted songs and his old-time instruments to blast out of the folky comfort zone the moment he arrives at the gig. 

A former New York City Urban Park Ranger, the Vladeck is fascinated by the interplay of opposites - of nature with Gotham - and the edges where they met.  This attraction to opposites, the modern and the historical, the urban and the rural, informs his musical aesthetic, and has led him to weld, with distinctly American ingenuity, the edges of folk and indie rock. 

What sets him apart are his sparkling, cascading lyrics and an emphasis on great songwriting.  It’s clear Andrew has done his homework, studying the line of great New York artists such as Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsburg, and Lou Reed.  It is his ability to take this heritage and make his own mark on it that led to his award for First Place in the International Songwriting Competition and various Billboard Song Contest awards.  For Andrew, music is first about the words.  He wants to tell you a story.  He does so in a way that is clever and playful, but never smarmy.  There are no inside-jokes, no nonsense passed off as poetry.  Andrew wants to share and communicate, and so every word has a purpose. 

Still, it’s his musicianship - his modern take on old-time instrumentation - that first calls attention.  Andrew plays with the ease and familiarity of someone who has grown up in the tradition, which is partly the case.  Inspired at an early age by his father’s cousin, David Bromberg (Grammy-nominated folk artist), Andrew picked up guitar, banjo and harmonica as a youth.  Andrew is never showy or precious about the traditions he reveres - in fact he will often use guitar stylings for banjo, and banjo stylings for guitar, taking license to interpret the (mostly Southern) folk canon for the world he inhabits.  A Fender Twin amplifier doesn’t come to mind when one thinks of a banjo, but Vladeck has been hot-wiring his instruments and running them though effects pedals, all to create a unique sound that can fill the clubs he plays.

Andrew was raised in a home with three vintage jukeboxes that commanded every room with chrome and blinking lights.  His parents filled them with 45s from the 1950s and 60s, granting Andrew a casually acquired, encyclopedic knowledge of Doo Wop and MoTown.  As a teenager, he hopelessly tried to conform to the pop music of his peers, but the draw of American Folk Music was too great, and a cluster of folk records from a garage sale changed the trajectory of his life.  

Andrew readily proclaims his influences, the obvious and the less-than: early Dylan, Springsteen, Elvis (Costello), Tom Waits, Cat Stevens; Harry Chapin, Alan Sherman, Tom Lehrer, Jonathan Richman, and even Public Enemy.  His reverence for folk’s forbears borders on the spiritual - Woody Guthrie, Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi Fred McDowell and John Hurt, The Carter Family, Blind Willie McTell - it is from their well he drinks.  He has tremendous admiration for the musicians stemming from the 1960s Folk Revival and for his contemporaries - Andrew Bird, Saint Vincent, Bon Iver, Jose Gonzalez - whose music inspires him to mold his sound anew, to continue the “folk process.”  

New York City, where Andrew was born and has lived most of his life, serves as his inspiration and his canvas.  Vladeck has released several records with bands big and small.  His current incarnation brings him back to the way he started, alone with his instruments and friends stopping by.  On his upcoming EP, Andrew has harnessed the musical talents of various friends (Lauren Balthrop, Jason Lawrence, Colette Alexsander) and the producer Misha Volf, to make his most engaging and compelling recording to date.  Listening to the new collection of songs from the upcoming EP “Passing Knowledge” is an almost interactive experience.  It’s as if, after hearing music and stories through walls, open windows, car stereos, and subways trains, Andrew is dropping by your apartment with his latest songs about your inner circle.  In “Can’t See Why” Andrew tells the story of a friend who, not realizing how much she’s appreciated, only alienates herself further, singing “we miss you, and you can’t see why.”  “Passing Knowledge of the Sexes,” written with members of The Honey Brothers, explores how people choose to represent themselves to others in this era of online connections.  In “Living the Dream,” Andrew shares a barrage of images and anecdotes that chronicle the bewildering joys and challenges of life in the shadow of the skyline. 

Andrew uses a sparse platform for his sound when that’s all it calls for—but when he picks up a banjo, there are tiny rippling explosions.  It’s with unexpected sonic twists and dead-on lyrical darts that he nails events and emotions specific and universal, as when he sings “the constellations looked just like the freckles on your shoulders,” while dapples of sound envelop the words.  

His vivid, sharp-edged lyrical approach and his unadorned vocals have a world-weariness, a wizened quality that manages to be both authoritative and self-effacing.  In “You,” Andrew admits, “I was an accessory, to a crime I didn’t wanna commit.”  It’s like he’s got your number, but he knows his is written on a bathroom wall somewhere.  So when he tells you what you wouldn’t admit about yourself, his humorous and self-deprecating manner and his earthy guitarwork make his directness disarming.

Andrew has been performing in and around NYC for a number of years.  He was voted NYC Artist of the Month by The Deli Magazine.  He has opened for or performed alongside artists including The National, Andrew Bird, Beth Orton, David Johannesson (The Harry Smiths), Marah, The Gourds, Brothers Creegan, Soulive, Soul Coughing, Jeff Buckley, and Ani DiFranco.  He and the musician Rachel Loshak curated the “Songster Jukebox” sessions at The Living Room, in New York City, which brought together artists from their community of friends and musicians, including Norah Jones, Jesse Harris, Richard Julian, Dayna Kurtz, Bosha Alsaadi (Saadi), Noam Weinstein, Greta Gertler, and others.  He has performed at the “Best of The Living Room” and “Best of Arlene Grocery” concert series.  He worked with Phish bassist Mike Gordon, contributing lead vocals to the song “Region,” from his cult classic concept-album based on Joey Arkenstat, and has been a prolific sideman in NYC, performing with Bri Anne Michelle, Preston Clarke, Tristan Kromer, FDR (Felix McTeigue), and even Nickelodeon’s Music for Aardvarks.  Andrew is also a member of the indie folk quintet The Honey Brothers and NYC-based folk collective Balthrop, Alabama.