Korby Lenker and The Banner Days SHINE at The Triple Door

The Banner Days at The Triple Door (Photo by Mocha Charlie)

Korby Lenker and The Banner Days met back East last fall when they were both finalists in the New Song Contest. Both played at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in NYC. While there, they became good friends, and paired up for Lenker‘s Seattle show at The Triple Door on Sunday night. It was an evening full of music, stories, and fun.

Born in Idaho, Lenker spent ten years in the Seattle area before moving to Nashville in 2007, where he currently resides. He can be described as a “not quite nonsensical” singer/songwriter. His music topics are fun, and full of joyful prose, that might not make sense without hearing the stories behind them. The Triple Door’s main stage in downtown Seattle provided him the space to sing, and tell some stories, play guitar, strum the ukulele, and even play their grand piano. His stories were captivating, and whimsical. The story behind the dried piranha on the cover of his most recent self titled release was shared. In conjunction with his CD release, he also debuted a book of short stories, Medium Hero and Other Stories. And, it is a FUN read! Not necessarily a “biography,” but brief moments in history that he felt should be captured in something more than a song. This leg of his tour will end Jan. 27.

The Banner Days, (Bradford Loomis, Beth Whitney, and Aaron Fishburn), have been playing shows together for just under a year, which included a few national tour dates last fall supporting their debut self titled EP. They recently took a trip to Nashville to co-write with Phil Madiera (The Civil Wars). They played a song, “Home Sweet Home,” from that partnership for the first time last night to rousing applause. Loomis and Whitney both play guitar on most songs, and Whitney also plucks a 90+ year-old banjo on a few tunes. Whitney adds a soft sense to their duets, with a strong, wide vocal range, while Loomis belts out the smoothest deep sounds and melodies, allowing the lyrics to simply melt together into something folk-fantastic. Fishburn sings back-up vocals and plays upright bass, adding depth to this fast-rising trio from Seattle. Their next local show is at The Tractor on February 7. Tickets are available here.