Equal parts classic songwriter and modern-day storyteller, Gabe Lee has built his ownbridge between country, folk and rock.Lee has been collecting stories for years, bothonstage and off. “I used to bartend,” says the Nashville-based songwriter, “whichmeansI was also a cheap therapist for whomever happened to be sitting on the barstool.Whether they were there to celebrate or drink away their problems, I heard aboutwhatever they were going through. It was my job to have that face-to-face interaction—that connection. Being a full-time musician isn’t much different.”With critically-acclaimed albums like 2019’sfarmland, 2020’sHonky-Tonk Hell, and2022’sThe Hometown Kid, Lee created that connection by delivering his own stories toan ever-growing audience. His fourth record,Drink the River, takes a differentapproach. This time, Lee isn’t offering listeners a peek into his internal world; he’sholding up a mirror to reflect their own.Storytelling has been an anchor of Lee’s music since the verybeginning. Raised byTaiwanese parents in Nashville, TN, he left home during his teenage years and headedto Indiana, where he obtained college degrees in literature and journalism. Leelaunched his career as a genre-bending musician after returning to Tennessee, quicklyprogressing from dive bar gigs to high-profile opening slots (including shows with JasonIsbell, Los Lobos,Molly Tuttle,and other artists who, like him, blurred the lines betweenroots-rock, country, and other forms of American folk music) to his own headliningshows. Throughout it all, he drew upon the narrative skills he’d sharpened as a student.If albums likeHonky-Tonk HellandThe Hometown Kidoften unfolded likeautobiographical entries from his road journal, thenDrink the Rivershows an evenbroader range of his storytelling abilities. Lee isn’t just writing songs about himself; he’swriting songs about all of us. And maybe, in doing so, he can bring us a little closertogether.
