Almost 10 years ago, E.S. Guthrie was sitting in front of a computer, trained as an electrical engineer. He was working on a post-graduate degree, and then something happened, the something big that happened to all of us: Sept. 11, 2001.
“It got me to thinking. One day I was just sitting in front of the screen, and I thought, sitting at a computer is not life for me,” he says.
So Guthrie, who had always been a singer, decided to become a musician, too.
Explaining his decision to pick up a guitar, he says , “I realized that you don’t have to know how to make music to make it.”
This Greensboro native, who sung in the a cappella choir at Page High School during his formative years, knew that he wanted music to be the center of his life.
And although his parents still live in Greensboro, Guthrie now knows that the road feels like home to him. And he’s never looked back.
He moved to Charlotte to pursue his dream and played as part of the popular band The New Familiars. This past year, he’s decided to go it alone, playing close to 50 dates on a few mini-solo tours and hosting an open mic night at The Evening Muse when he’s in the Queen City.
For him, this is the realization of success, and he has plans to play at least 200 solo dates in 2011.
“I feel like I’ve reached success,” Guthrie says. “I eat, I have a roof over my head, and I have a lot of love.”
On Friday, he opens for Paleface at The Garage in Winston-Salem, one of his favorite places to play in the Triad. He also cites the Green Bean and The Blind Tiger as two other superior music venues here, but he wishes “there was more of a dedicated listening room (like The Garage) in Greensboro.”
Guthrie’s passion for live performance and for creativity in general comes through in any discussion of music. He strives to be playing, writing, and inspiring others to do what they love. He sees himself as a philosopher, as someone who is a “creative doer,” and who, through his music, gets to plug in (pardon the pun) to a creative world full of creative people.
“I love passion and creativity in general. I’m not different than anyone else out there I meet — I’m just finding out some way to do it,” he says.
His “way” involves a firm rooting in folk, but with a focus on the future, not the past. The songs are emotional, sometimes raw, sometimes contemplative, but always personal. Guthrie breaks away from traditional folk models by using modern reverb, and his writing and song styling is influenced by many genres of music.
“I don’t want people coming to my show thinking they are going to see Joan Baez,” he explains.
He is, however, a singer/songwriter who does focus on the craft of penning a good song, and when not writing songs, he is writing a consistent blog (esguthrie.com) where he documents his life on the road and a life filled with doing what he loves: meeting people and making music.
Contact Stephanie burt at charlotteghost@gmail.com
