Folk-pop singer/songwriter Brett Dennen has performed at the Musical Instrument Museum before, but he promises a colorful performance on Friday, June 26.
Other than his acoustic guitar, Dennen will be hauling his abstract watercolor paintings, the backbone of his new “Art is Life” jaunt — blurring the line between concert, gallery and creative experiment.
“It’s definitely a concert,” Dennen said. “It’s an interactive art show concert. I bring a bunch of my paintings onstage and try to match them to the songs. I pair art to the music and then I get the crowd’s response to it.
“That’s the first set. The second set, the crowd picks songs to go with the paintings. They’re open for interpretation and that gives me a lot of freedom to choose different songs to go with different paintings.”
DEEPER DIVE: Read all the Ranking Arizona Top 10 lists here
INDUSTRY INSIGHTS: Want more news like this? Get our free newsletter here
Dennen said he loves shaping his part of the show, but the real fun comes from the crowd’s imagination. He’s fielded everything from an orca exploding out of the water to a woman galloping through a lightning storm. The interpretations are as varied as the people in the room — and Dennen loves it.
“I’ve played shows where I come with a band, I dance and expend a bunch of energy,” he said. “This is just me, a guitar and paintings on the stage. By the end of these shows, I think, ‘Wow. That took a lot out of me. It’s so much fun.’”
Though the large‑scale acrylic paintings are new, art itself is not. Dennen grew up in a creative household. His father was a carpenter who sculpted wood on the side, his mother a talented artist who homeschooled him.
“She encouraged a lot of art and creativity in the house every day,” he says.
He’s carried watercolor kits on tour for years, sketching and painting between shows. But this tour marks the first time he’s brought that part of himself directly into the spotlight.
“This is an idea that has been brewing for a long time,” Dennen said.
“I always wanted to connect the two, other than making merchandise or album cover designs. This is all one big experiment. I set the stage, I prep the audience, and I say this is something we’re going to create together. I don’t expect it to go a certain way. I could work or it could not.”
Dennen’s most recent album, “It Takes Two,” describes the grief surrounding the unexpected loss of his father from cardiac disease. The death was an experience that reshaped him and his writing.
“That was the first time I dealt with a death of someone that close in my family, and somebody I depended on so much,” he said. “I just knew that the only way I was going to get through was if I wrote about it.
“I figured that would be my therapy. I threw myself fully into grief. I didn’t know how to make a really sad album. I love sad music, but when I try, it’s never as good as when other people make it. The album isn’t just sad. There is a lot of happy, positive stuff in it. There’s just a little tinge of grief and depth in there.”
The album became a celebration of life, memory and the things his father inspired in him. It’s sprawling, too.
“Anybody who likes my music will find at least one song on this album that they can connect with,” Dennen said. “It’s an undertaking to listen to it all in one sitting. On vinyl, it takes up two records. I just wanted to have it all in there. I felt my grief deserved a deep dive.”
Besides his family’s influence, Dennen was schooled in music early. His first concert was with the children’s performer, Raffi.
“I remember it very well,” he said. “I remember him walking through the audience with a microphone and putting the microphone up to people to sing along. He never got close to us. When I was a teenager, my sister and I went to a concert all by ourselves. She drove, and we saw REM and Sonic Youth.”
He was really inspired by the Beastie Boys’ “Hello, Nasty” tour at the Oakland Coliseum. “I was singing along to all the songs, and that was a really wild experience. I didn’t think anything like that could happen,” Dennen said.
“They had a revolving circular stage in the center of the arena, and it was bananas. It was a rock show. Even though they’re rappers. It was just so loud. The crowd was so loud. When they did ‘Sabotage’ in the encore, you couldn’t even hear the band. It was incredible.”
