Ravinia 2021 - Issue 2

PREVIOUS PAGE AND THIS PAGE: PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST “I love playing Ravinia, it’s just a beautiful place … walking through and seeing people having fun, getting together, being in the park outdoors in the summertime—I get the most inspiration from that.” “It started out as a song inspired by my son,” notes the relatively new father. “He was crawling and just learning to walk, and it got me think- ing about where he’s gonna go in life. It made me think about the Dr. Seuss book Oh, the Places You’ll Go! , and it made me think about so many great song lyrics spoken from somebody who’s experienced life to somebody who’s just beginning, like Cat Stevens’s ‘Father and Son.’ But as I was working out the chorus, ‘Get out and see the world with your own eyes,’ it hit me that the song […] could be deeper, it could be broader, and it could be more about everybody needing to see and experience the world through their own lens with their own feelings. In doing so, they will have a much stron- ger sense of empathy and connection with everyone else on the planet.” Ever since debuting in 2004, Den- nen has steadily become one of the most articulate and thought-provok- ing voices of his generation, earning praises from prior superstar tour mates, such as John Mayer and Jason Mraz, while being critically acclaimed for following in the elite troubadour tradition of Stevens, Paul Simon, Tom Petty, or Van Morrison. Though he frequently falls into the folk catego- ry, there’s mounds more happening throughout what’s shaping up to be a landmark standalone collection at the very least and arguably a true career cornerstone. “The way I made this album, I wrote probably 30 songs for it. I would write a song and I’d demo it, then I wouldn’t listen to it for a while and I’d keep writing,” says the meticulous song sculptor. “Through the process of a couple years of doing this, it took a lot of different turns, not necessarily thematically, but musically. Some songs were a little bit more rocking and grooving, and other songs were more folky. Some songs sounded like ’80s pop, some songs sounded even like old-timey country, and it was kind of all over the place. I just remember thinking, ‘I don’t even know if these songs are good or not,’ but I kept telling myself, ‘as long as I put “See the World” on the album, it will be good. It might not even be the best song on the album, but it’s the thing I wanted to say most at the time. At least the message that I want to put across is out there, and then everything else can somehow just fall into place.” “There are a lot of songs about people not taking chances or wishing they would’ve taken chances,” Dennen continues. “I think that comes up in three or four songs, stories about people who dream big but then maybe never go after those dreams, and their life becomes something else. Then there are songs about people who do [follow through], but it takes them somewhere that they didn’t want to go. There are love songs that are about going through your own experiences and songs that come from a place of anger in my heart and sort of disgust in people at times. They’re songs about people’s ignorance, not understanding other people and feeling more entitled than I think they should be, so it all somehow comes back to this theme of ‘everybody needs to get out of their comfort zone, reach across, and understand other people.’ ” Speaking of people, after over a year-and-half of pandemic-in- duced isolation, Dennen and his band cannot wait to connect with a crowd while presenting these current musings and prior staples at Ravin- ia. Though this marks his inaugural headlining performance, chances are audiences already caught a glimpse of such budding greatness opening up for Australian roots rockers John Butler Trio in 2017 and “I’m Yours” maestro Mraz in 2018. “I love playing there and it’s just a beautiful place,” enthuses Dennen. “I love being near the lake in the sum- mer. It’s beautiful, but I think my fa- vorite thing to do when I’m there is to walk around, like you play a show and then you take a walk to where they are selling CDs and T-shirts. I just love RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 24 – AUGUST 15, 2021 8