Photo: Jim Wright
Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Pete Yorn has several reasons for enjoying the solo acoustic tour he’s currently on, but the most amusing one involves his 3-year-old daughter.
“Every time I pick it up she’s like, ‘No guitar!’ Yorn says with a chuckle. “When she was a baby I could play, but now she wants all my attention. I have to sneak out to the closet to play guitar.”
Although the closet may currently be Yorn’s most regular venue, his playing is still in high demand away from home. As a successful and critically acclaimed musician, Yorn has scored films, recorded albums of his original songs, and worked with a diverse array of musical talent including R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, and the Dixie Chicks’ Martie Maguire and Natalie Maines, along with collaborating on an album and an EP with Hollywood megastar and sometimes torch singer, Scarlett Johansson. For his current You & Me Solo Acoustic Tour he’s returned to the basics.
“It’s a one man show,” Yorn says. “Just me and my guitar, we’ve got to make it up together every night. I’ve been breaking out a lot of my older material along with playing a couple of new songs. No set list is the only rule.”
Approaching each show with an improv attitude has been a freeing experience for Yorn.
“There’s a definite advantage to not having a band,” He says. “I started playing music because it was a freeing thing to do, playing in the moment, and that’s what these shows are about. I could capture some of that spontaneity with a band but not like I can on my own.”
Yorn says he’s particularly looking forward to Friday night’s show at The Cowan. In addition to his past work in Nashville’s studios and venues, it’s a chance to make up for a missed opportunity from last year.
“We were supposed to play the Pilgrimage Music Festival with my band last year but the show got canceled due to weather. So I’m really glad to be back in Nashville. The fans have been great. They’re super inspiring and certainly not shy about yelling out which songs they want to hear, and I know Nashville will be great too.”
Lightning 100 Presents — An Evening with Pete Yorn
Friday, Jan. 18, The Cowan at Topgolf, 500 Cowan St.
Tickets available through TicketWeb.
