BROOKINGS Libraries have a reputation as hushed places of silent scholarship and study but Oct. 8 at 6 p.m., the walls of Brookings Public Library will echo with the lively sounds of country western and American folk music when nationally-touring duo Kerry Grombacher and Aspen Black present a free concert.
The twosome are touring South Dakota, funded by a grant from the South Dakota Arts Council, the Department of Tourism and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Mostly we work in the contemporary western market these days doing folk and country as well, Grombacher said. In a large part, our lives are our songs. We get to see these landscapes people have written about, that we write about.
Grombacher was born in Kansas and now resides in Louisiana; Black is from Virginia. Both have enjoyed successful solo careers. Last year, Black won Best Gospel Song at the International Western Music Association awards and was nominated for Female Performer of the Year. Grombacher won Song of the Year from the same association in 2021 and was nominated for Male Performer of the Year in 2023. Since 2014 the two troubadours have performed together, touring the nation and presenting concerts at museums, libraries, and art councils.
Were both members of the eastern chapter of the International Western Music Association, and I remember coming up to Roanoke, Va. close to where Aspens horse farm is to do a songwriting workshop and a concert, Grombacher said. That was the point when we started talking about working together.
It sort of blossomed from there, Black said. Kerry mentored me in more of the cultural type of music the libraries and the museums and things like that. And I came from the country music world, where I was doing more of the generic venues which would be akin to restaurants, and breweries and wineries not so much the cultural type of music, but providing more of that standard type of music where you dont do a lot of interpretation.
Grombacher plays guitar and mandolin; Black plays guitar and bass. Together they weave stories through song drawing on the richly varied American tapestry they view while touring.
I have a song that actually tracks Highway 281 from the Canadian border to Mexico, Grombacher said. One of the lines is, shining bright above the treetops overlooking its domain grain elevator, the cathedral of the plains. And somebody once said, Ill never look at a grain elevator the same again; Ill just always see it differently. And I think thats one of the things we want to help people do is to look at the world a little bit differently.
The duo uses music as a lens to view the regular world from another angle a perspective they hope to share with audiences.
Theyre (the audience) going to find out about things that they maybe havent noticed or seen before, places they havent gone, cultures in Kerrys songs, theres a lot of New Orleans culture, said Black. I think in rhyme and meter and melody everything I experience. Its a hard thing for me to look at something and make a comment in prose. Often Ill look or see or hear something that first comment in my head at least comes back in rhyme and meter and melody.
The pair cites a diversity of artists as musical influences.
I grew up in the 50s and 60s, and I was influenced a lot by Bill Monroe, old bluegrass and Hank Williams, Grombacher said. And then of course, theres no singer-songwriter who cannot claim Bob Dylan as a significant influence. He just changed songwriting so radically.
Black comes from a younger generation of lyricist heroes.
Lets see, for me John Denver, Black said. I was born in the midst of the 70s when he was hitting big right then, so it was just something. I literally grew up with his eight-tracks playing in my nursery, my mom told me. I would say he was my largest influence. Multiple other things Ive picked up here and other places but he and Ian Tyson were probably my strongest influences.
Today, Grombacher and Black tour the country both out of a love of performing and a desire to seek new inspiration.
We learn a lot from the travel no question about it, Grombacher said. People tell us stories, and we read about areas and sometimes those stories find their way into songs. Sometimes well do a song about a thing a person just told us about, or sometimes its just an anecdote or just a character who shows up.
They try to write songs that resonate with everyday people.
Just a couple days ago, someone heard one of my songs and said, oh my goodness, that song is the story of my parents lives, Black said. Its things like that where weve been able to make our lyrics universally appealing as well as detailed through the actual characters and landscapes. Thats one of the things that sets our songs apart from maybe more generic songs just about a particular feeling or experience.
Tuesday nights Brookings concert is just one stop on their tour. The duo performs Sunday in Wessington Springs, Monday in Mitchell, Wednesday in Huron, Thursday in Sioux Falls and next Friday in Vermillion at the National Music Museum.
This program at Brookings Library as well as the rest of the entire week that were doing in South Dakota is partially funded by a very generous grant from the South Dakota Arts Council, Grombacher said. It has allowed us to go into communities where weve not played before, which is the goal of the grant. South Dakota has a really fantastic Arts Council and were proud and honored to be recipients of the grant.
Both say they love South Dakota.
My daughter and I came out for a different kind of tour and spent a lot of time in central South Dakota and some of western South Dakota. And again just beautiful, Black said. My husband says its a place people ought to know about visiting and just is not on anybodys radar, but it should be. Ill say the Mount Rushmore thing is on the radar, but the rest of the state is not and people are missing so much.
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