By Kelsey Knott • Photos By Matt Johnson
“There’s an encouragement factor and community support I never really experienced until I lived in Louisville. Even if it’s not something I’m passionate about, I connect with people here because I see their passion for their things reflected, and I feel it too.”
Growing up in a musical family in Oklahoma, Drew Crawley started playing music in the church, and his mother ensured her six children began piano around the age of four or five. When the church was no longer a part of his life, he found himself searching for community, sometimes in self-destructive places. “When I was no longer in the church, I was like, ‘Oh, I lost music too.’” In the process of getting sober, he re-engaged with music through journaling and connecting those words with music, ultimately allowing him to rebuild a new magical, passionate community.
Two things spark inspiration in Crawley’s world: “Journaling and thinking through what recovery looks like in everyday situations, whether that’s relationships, individual goals or just wrestling with trying to be a better person than I used to be. And the other thing is people’s stories. The great songwriters I admire, John Prine, Willie Nelson, and other legends, have a way of writing other people’s stories, so I’m really inspired by that as well.” When songwriting, he takes pride in editing and re-editing for the perfect phrasing and word choice. “I also have a few trusted voices at the Monarch. I love my wife, and she’s my biggest supporter and biggest critic, but I need other ears and eyes on it before I’m comfortable saying it’s done. If I don’t convey what I intended, I didn’t do a good enough job.”
The Monarch has gifted Crawley a space for consistency when dedicating time to his craft. Once a week, he schedules himself to have around three hours there: “Knowing that that time is blocked off in the calendar, even if I get nothing out of it, I still did the practice of coming, and I feel like I have grown as a songwriter through consistency–not just waiting for the inspiration or waiting for the topic, but making myself do it.” The magic of the Monarch helps keep him from “getting in his own way,” not to mention connecting him with others working towards similar goals: “I’ve met other people that are in recovery. I’ve met beautiful artists and seen beautiful shows. But when I can sit upstairs and co-write with somebody, it’s just lightning in a bottle. Not saying those songs are great, but the experience of writing with another person is incredible. The shows are great and important, but the community during the week and the early morning hours is where the magic is.”
Drew Crawley knows that writing and playing songs is all that artists truly want to do, recognizing the downfalls of the seemingly broken industry of unfair contracts and fighting to own one’s music. His hope for his listeners is a beautiful sentiment: “I hope that people receive grace and hope and that they see themselves reflected in my music, especially for folks in recovery. I was given gifts by other artists in their reckonings with that in their own lives, like Ruston Kelly and Jason Isbell. But the thing about that is not necessarily that they are experts at the craft–it’s the connection they make through their lyrics. With this newest record, I had a chance to play it and an opportunity to talk to somebody who had gone through the same struggles as me–divorce, church breakup, addiction, and recovery down to the substances. He was gracious enough to share that with me, and that was worth every penny, every hour we spent making the record. I touched someone else’s life in the same way that my life has been touched by other songwriters.”
Songwriter Nights, Crawley’s project at the Monarch, typically occur on the third Monday of every month. “Folks can come in and share a song that’s either partway finished or all the way finished. There’s an opportunity to receive feedback if you want that, but it’s really just a good opportunity to get in a room of like-minded people. We want to address the different phases that songs go through and, hopefully, give folks a place monthly to work on that.” As it grows, Crawley hopes songwriter nights become fluid and flexible for everyone, where some are co-writing or jamming on something new, some are talking through songwriting details, and some may even be bravely taking their song to the stage for its debut.
Listen to Drew Crawley’s newest record, Hard to Hold, out everywhere, and stay tuned for a brand-new song with Glory Daze on March 14th! Follow his Instagram and find tour dates on drewcrawleymusic.com.