A “countryish singer/songwriter from Minnesota” will stop in Newtown on Saturday, April 6, for a live performance at Murphy’s Pub.

Luke Hendrickson introduced himself to The Newtown Bee via email recently to announce his stop in town on his East Coast Comfort Food Tour, which follows the release of his debut recording in May 2018.

“I have been touring around the country ever since,” he stated.

A phone call on March 29 caught him leaving home in Minnesota to pick up his “roadie … I am bringing my mother on this leg of the tour,” he said. The two were heading toward Freeport, Ill., for the first stop of Hendrickson’s tour.

“I have been trying to expand and push my music all over country and tour a lot more,” Mr Hendrickson said. He has never been to New England.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he mentioned.

According to the performer’s website, “After getting his start as a metal bassist, Luke Hendrickson found his voice in country music, particularly that of the ‘outlaw’ variety.”

The site continues: “Eventually, seven years with the Rochester, Minnesota-based group Luke ‘n Bob Texas gave Luke a sizable set list — including tunes from legends like Haggard, Jennings, Cash, and Jones, as well as his own songs dealing with drinkin,’ lovin,’ and inescapable wanderlust.”

He wanted to “go to the East Coast,” he said last week. “I have a friend in Maine, and he wanted me out there, and I started searching the web for places to play. I found Newtown. I think Murphy’s was one of the first places I called, and the owner … booked me on the spot.”

The Comfort Food Tour is something Mr Hendrickson has “been doing in sections since last June, a week at a time, and this will be the last part of it.”

“A lot of things” prompted him to push his music, he said, including “a desire to travel, wanderlust.”

Since he began “making my own music, I quit my normal job [a delivery service driver], and with wife and family’s blessing, I started branching out from home to the regional area,” he said.

He then took an opportunity to travel to Montana, and “then was bit by the bug,” he added.

Mr Hendrickson is now doing as much music “as I can,” while also keeping his “home fires burning.”

Since he left his job as a delivery driver, he said, “I am a stay-at-home dad.” As he describes it: “Kids in the day and guitar at night.” Mr Hendrickson has two daughters, ages 7 and 4.

“I have been playing music since I was a teenager; I’m 35 now — it’s love of music,” he said.

He “started with a bass at 17, and I started learning it furiously and was in rock and metal bands in my 20s, then got into country music.” From then on, his musical pursuit “was a snowball, unplanned. The only thing I planned are the tours.”

His songwriting further developed, he said. “I was never a good student, not that I could not have been, but I never liked writing essays …”

The first song he wrote was also not something he had planned.

“I woke up with a dream, and I wrote it down right away, that was the song ‘Black Hills Boogey,’ something I still play,” he said.

Despite his currently recorded music, Mr Hendrickson said, “I have not even recorded it yet. It has changed tempo and key over time and gotten to where I fully enjoy it again.”

Mr Hendrickson’s musical career “was a hobby for 15 years, and once I found out that I can make a living doing it, there is no turning back, no punching a clock anymore; it’s fantastic.”

With a “very encouraging wife, bless her heart,” who took vacation time “so I could do this,” Mr Hendrickson is now out on tour. He credits his wife, Maggie, explaining, “She is on the board of directors for a local community theater; she’s busy, too.”

Talking about his vision for the future, Mr Hendrickson said, “Definitely in the near future — I started a kick starter campaign to get my first full-length album recorded,” he said. A short-term goal is to get full-length album recorded and “to keep playing as much as I can and see new corners of the country and maybe the world someday.”

Will he ever turn back with his creativity and music gaining momentum? “I don’t think so. Inner expression is liberating, not that 9 to 5 isn’t something someone can be passionate about, but I never felt that.”

He said, “I just want to be able to keep harnessing the inspiration I find and turning it into music.” Mentioning “a goal since I started this seriously,” Mr Hendrickson wants to “find new ways to write and write music that keeps people buying albums, enjoying my stuff, and keep me motivated and keep me looking for new inspiration.”

Regarding his creativity in making music, he said, “I think you have to take initiative… you can have a dry spell and say, ‘well, that’s it.’ But I would think that as a creative person, it’s in you.”

He would “like to think that it would never dry up without choosing to give up, which I am not going to do.” He said, “Doubts are real, and they come and go.” But as for inspiration, he said, “Be ready” to write things down “whenever it happens.”

Music has brought him under the spotlight with some of his favorite influences, including “a chance to share the stage with notable people — David Allen Coe, years ago with a country band, and last year in May, I opened a show for Ben and Noel Haggard, Merle Haggard’s sons, in an intimate small venue in Minnesota. That was really cool, inspiring and cool.”

There is “absolutely an energy that happens, and in a setting like that, a ticketed event, and seating, and [audience members] were there to listen to me and my own songs,” Mr Hendrickson said. “I had a 45-minute set, which is really rewarding to have people listening, plus I met Merle Haggard’s sons.”

Murphy’s Pub is at 71 South Main Street, within Ricky’s Shopping Center. Showtime on Saturday for Luke Hendrickson is 5 pm.

Find more information and stream some of Mr Hendrickson’s music at, [naviga:u]lukehendricksonmusic.com[/naviga:u], [naviga:u]facebook.com/lukehendricksonmusic[/naviga:u], and [naviga:u]lukehendrickson.bandcamp.com[/naviga:u].