Western Mass songwriter Abe Loomis credits a family car trip to Wyoming when he was 14 years old for kickstarting his life in music.
While traveling along in the backseat, he had his first encounter with classic country radio: Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson and Hank Williams. The sounds he heard floating from the stereo affected him deeply, and he’s been writing his own songs ever since.
Instrumentally, Loomis started out on cello, and then added a little piano and guitar. His mother and father bought him an old Tascam multi-track recorder, which he cites as a huge difference-maker. Eight years ago he received a banjo for Christmas, inspiring him to begin playing on the sidewalks in downtown Northampton with friend Daniel Pac.
“I love playing on the street,” he says. “People don’t have to stop, they haven’t paid for anything, there’s no investment unless you touch them in some way and they decide they want to listen to what you’re doing for a little longer.”
Loomis says his writing process usually commences with listening to an artist he greatly admires, like the aforementioned country legends or someone in the vein of Chuck Berry, to get great sounds going in his head. Then the composing begins.
“Sometimes it starts with a discovered phrase, playing with interesting words together and listening to the rhythms in them, and then figuring out how they might work with music,” he says. “Sometimes it starts with a strong or painful experience or a feeling that I want to try to express. It’s pretty mysterious. Sometimes I’ll start a song at night and wake up the next morning or in the middle of the night and it will just come out fully formed. My mind works on things when I’m not thinking about them.”
Loomis is currently working on three distinct projects. There’s Bright Lines, “a kind of a folk-punk-blues-indie-rock experiment” with drumming pal Tom Leslie. The two have been working with guitarist Dave Chalfant and bass player Gray Maynard, getting together “to play and see what happens.”
He also plays with Pac and Crystalline Ruby Muse of Fireseed in the band Old Mill, which Loomis describes as having more of a classic roots sound: “not quite as loud, but also very satisfying.”
Finally, he plays under his own moniker, in more of a folk/country style. He recently jammed with Chalfant and Tracy Grammer, an occurrence he describes as “an honor.” You can often find him performing solo at his friend Molly Cantor’s pottery studio in Shelburne Falls.
Loomis is currently working on a CD that he hopes to have finished by the spring. Upcoming live shows include Jan. 15 at the Rendezvous in Turners Falls, where he’ll perform as a duo with Leslie, and an Old Mill gig at the Basement in Northampton Jan. 27.
For more information, visit abeloomismusic.com.
