Green Shoelace » Happy Birthday Aaron Stout: The Late Singer-Songwriter Would Have Turned 30 Today

Happy Birthday Aaron Stout: The Late Singer-Songwriter Would Have Turned 30 Today

Thursday August 6th 2009 @ 9:54 am by jaclyn inglis

Today marks the would-be 30th birthday of the late, Indiana-born singer-songwriter, Aaron Stout.

Partial to New York, London and Prague, he spent an entire decade wandering the world with only a backpack and guitar–a genuine artist–refreshing at a time when so many new artists spring from places of money, connections and wide-reaching safety nets. Stout had none of the above, supported only by an unyielding passion for creating art and faith that it would eventually be heard.

Equal lover of Jesus and alcohol, Stout’s music is a reflection of both. His songs are intelligently woven stories; often painful and drawn from a strange existence, they are told through a voice, alive with blood and breath and a vocal range that is as unique as it is luring.

His first album, Queens Live in Caskets, was picked up in 2006 by a small London-based label, Monotreme, owned by a woman who Aaron considered a mother figure of sorts. A spacey, low-fi collection of 4-track recordings, the album stayed under the radar despite write-ups by the French Rolling Stone, multiple music blogs and publications as well as a kindly-noted radio piece on NPR’s All Songs Considered.

His songs range from simple 2-step melodies to complex vocal layers, with thoughtfully constructed instrumentation and randomly placed found sounds. His newest stuff, some of which can be found on his self-released, The Mind of Kings Is Unsearchable, is more structured, straight ahead folk-rock.

Aaron briefly attempted to shop Kings in the US, targeting smaller labels he felt a certain kinship to, but after multiple rejections he set out to release the album on his own. He was just gaining momentum when his life was tragically cut short this past February. Friends and family have rallied together to pick up where he left off and his music can be purchased through his Myspace page (www.myspace.com/aaronstout) as well as various digital outlets including iTunes.

Check out the animated video for “Space Station” and NPR-featured track “Fountain of Youth,” both off his debut album Queens (Monotreme); as well as a track “Ice Cream Man” from his self-release The Mind of Kings is Unsearchable (below).

07 Fountain Of Youth 1
06 Ice Cream Man