Robby Hecht

A proper artist struggles to influence life's signal to noise ratio. Under the right kind of concentration, the static grows quiet. The extraneous and the superficial are pared away. And precious human qualities are held still, carefully turned over and inspected for illuminating details. In Robby Hecht's case, this effort emerges as music that invites and even induces the listener to a similar place of serenity, clarity and patience. quot;When I'm writing by myself something can take three years until I get past my own self-editing phase,quot; says Hecht about his meticulous approach. quot;Everything I write I'm trying to capture some kind of truth that I haven't heard anyone say in that way before.quot; And that's what we hear on Hecht's third album, a self-titled collection of twelve lovely and insightful songs. Those who give it time will be seduced by a quality that fellow songwriter Steve Poltz once compared to quot;a warm blanket that wraps itself around you.quot; And Poltz is but one of many peers in the folk music community who've testified to the magnitude of Hecht's talents. Catie Curtis, Anais Mitchell, Julie Lee and others have gushed about the quot;natural beautyquot; of Hecht's tone, the quot;honey in his voicequot; and his quot;authentic giftsquot; as a lyricist. Prizes from songwriting contests at Kerrville and Telluride have further confirmed Hecht's stature as a musician's musician. Now, with several circuits of the nation under his belt and a widening base of support in the songwriter world, Hecht is worthy of wider recognition by fans of observant, immersive music. Raised by Midwestern Jewish parents in the conservative South, he became accustomed to - but never comfortable with - frequent questions about which (Christian) church he attended. His tastes in music in his teens ran the gamut from Def Leppard to The Grateful Dead. More songwriter-centric material took root a little later, and at age 18 he made a quot;strangely confident and finalquot; decision to commit to music as his calling and career. At college in Madison, Wisconsin his class notebooks became scratch pads as he poured out his first wave of ideas. As he approached performing though, there were doubts. As fascinated as he was by a life in music, he couldn't shake the feeling of being a stranger and an outsider - even to himself. It was not until the mid 2000s - after travels in Europe, a time in San Francisco where he formed the duo AllDay Radio, a move back to his hometown of Knoxville and a final shift to Nashville - that he made the most significant discovery of his life as a person and an artist. Thanks to insights from the woman who was on her way to becoming his wife, he learned he'd been suffering for years from bipolar disorder. Besides a large measure of personal contentment, dealing with that head on had truly practical implications for an aspiring performer. quot;My condition made it hard to really commit to anything,quot; Hecht says. quot;It made it hard to want to record a record. It made it hard to tour or to co-write with somebody. Because at some subconscious level, I didn't know what version of myself I was going to be when I showed up.quot; Robby's newfound consistency and stability were rewarded with a rush of opportunities and victories. He placed second at the prestigious Telluride Troubadour Contest, a contest he would later win. He took a title at Kerrville New Folk Competition, a national nerve-center of contemporary songwriting. These and other contests were, Hecht says, quot;an entry point to the wo