Ryan Kerr

When that someone is in a basement full of friends, belting out songs that are familiar yet yearningly original with everyone around you singing along, that feeling intensifies. And when you get so caught up in the moment that you don’t realize the person isn’t using a microphone or an amp to fill the dingy, dirt-floor room with modern folk music that makes you long for a time decades before you were even born, you know you’ve found someone special.

Ryan Kerr is a musician who can make you feel like that. Though he’s from North Manchester, he can be found playing shows in Fort Wayne anywhere from actual music venues to someone’s living room or porch. His folk-punk, Americana music is decidedly Midwestern, but bigger than that.

Kerr, a big guy, not only in stature but also in presence, voice and heart – has been heavily influenced by family.
“Raising children has changed songwriting for me, and continues to. I think my perspective on things has just broadened a bit over the last 10 years of being a father, and now I’m mindful of a legacy for my kids,” said Kerr via email.