John Louis

Troubadour John Louis wanders around this world of music, writing and singing heartworn country folk songs. 

John’s that guy on the bus who sits quietly, looking tired like the rest of us. The difference is he is sitting there composing a song about your life and those painful poignant moments you dust off on the way home between life’s chores. His songs show us our lives and the subtle but important things that become universally important hallmarks of our Midwestern journey. 

Like church basement rolls at the funeral. Like the small moments on road trips filled with meaning, loss and memory. The tragedies and triumphs that break us and keep us going one more day. 

John glimpses it all through a poet’s heart. When he stands bravely on a stage with a guitar and begins singing, we get to see it too. And it makes sense for a moment. 

The songs John writes keep winning awards from prestigious songwriting showcases. Including the Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk competition, Telluride Troubadour Contest, Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Songwriter Showcase, and the Great River Folk Fest songwriter contest. (That’s some hot sh-t folks!) 

I dare you to listen to his music and not feel like the first human who rode on the tilt-a-whirl. 

The thing is, this country folk music he makes has emerged from walking the path to wisdom. This is a path most American men run from. Because it’s a painful and sad road. But it is a sadness tinged with meaning and some joy at the thought that we get to experience any of it. 

His telling of the journey is thrilling, emotional and truth filled. 

John Louis songs will bind us all together in a concert that will have us laughing, weeping openly and connecting with one another as people on the same path to the destination.  He knows that in fact no one here facing this life-sentence of life for an indeterminate length of time had much choice and the few choices we did have were blown somehow. But god how sweetly we love it. His songs are the consolation prize for all of us losers as we get up and stare out the window and are gripped with a love of this precious life and a woe that resides at the edges of this brief journey through. 

Quotes: 

“John Louis is a good man writing great music . . . .” Jon Dee Graham 

“John Louis's songwriting is reminiscent of Kris Kristofferson, John Prine and Townes Van Zandt.” Radio Heartland, Minnesota Public Radio 

“Rootsy singer/songwriter John Louis [is] equal parts John Prine and Robert Earl Keen . . . .” Minneapolis StarTribune 

“. . . brings to mind John Prine, Patty Griffin, Kris Kristofferson and Lucinda Williams . . . . Louis is a storyteller by nature, and his album asks an ear of its listeners. Live at The Warming House, Minneapolis, Minnesota is both gentle and intense. It welcomes listeners in, and gives them something to think about. ” No Depression 

“. . . a particularly engaging album.” Americana UK (on 2024 release “For Everyone (Especially You)”)

". . . folk picker/alt-twanger John Louis sings whimsically and movingly about city life and mid-life on his new album "For Everyone (Especially You)" Minneapolis StarTribune