SACRAMENTO, Calif. — There's some serious talent coming out of Sacramento’s music scene. Tré Burt is a local folk musician who’s set to tour through the U.S. and Canada next week. He was originally set to perform at SXSW before the festival's cancellation due to coronavirus concerns, however the show will go on. His tour kicks off at off at Willie Nelson’s Luck Reunion in Texas.
The 27-year-old with an old soul writes, sings and plays guitar to provide what listeners might call a Dylan-esque vibe.
ABC10's Barbara Bingley sat down with Burt to talk about his music beginnings and his debut, full-length album "Caught It From The Rye."
The following interview was edited for brevity and clarity:
ABC10: How did you get into music?
Burt: The story I stick to is I stepped on my brothers’ guitar on accident. He always played music, and when I stepped on his guitar, it interested me in what I just crushed. That’s kind of the crux of it.
ABC10: How about the singing part?
Burt: Singing was a necessity for writing songs. I'm a reluctant singer. I don't have a classically good sounding voice, but I enjoy it. I enjoy words. I enjoy writing the words. My favorite part about writing a song is how you say the words because how you say the words itself is like another story.
ABC10: Where does the folk influence come from?
Burt: Well, I think the answer is somewhere in my heritage. My family is from the South, from South Carolina. A lot of them were musicians, back in the sharecropping days and whatnot, you know? So I think I’m drawing from my heritage and the tradition of what folk music is. It’s an ageless thing in itself.
ABC10: What were some of the ways you would market yourself when you were getting started?
Burt: It can be hard to get a gig when you're just starting out and talking to promoters who have no idea who you are. And busking is a free way for publicity, you can just stand up anywhere and people start seeing your face and hearing your voice. So to me that was a, 'duh, I'll just do this,' you know. Play to people.
I made amateur mix tapes and where are a lot of people? They get coffee and Starbucks, ya know. And they have a CD rack and whatnot, so I'd just sneak mine in front of everyone else's. Or if you want to be really inconspicuous, you put it a couple behind, so management doesn’t find it and throw it out. I don’t know if anyone ever listened to them, but yeah.
ABC10: What are the songs on "Caught it From the Rye" about?
Burt: My experience, and, well, there are a couple themes. Some songs are about getting older in this generation and what it means for me in particular as a Black American. Making sense of stuff, you know. I'm really confused about where things are going. Songwriting for me is a way to make sense of what’s happening, to me specifically, and if it speaks to anyone else or any other cause, that’s a coincidence.
ABC10: What do you want listeners to take away from your music?
Burt: That it makes them question their own truth. Not in a bad way, not to interrogate whoever's listening to it, but to catch their attention. I think that’s the hope of anything, to catch people's attention.
Follow the conversation on Facebook with Barbara Bingley.
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