About Ken Lelen

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                                    Photo: Mike Nixon
Ken Lelen — vocals & vintage guitars

Vintage guitarist Ken Lelen sings ragtime, swing and jazz tunes from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, and pairs each song with a vintage guitar from the same era for an authentic sound. “Folks love these songs and they’re pleasantly surprised by the robust sound and classy appeal of my vintage guitars,” he says.

     Lelen's concerts are popular with diverse groups and sundry venues, including music and arts centers, churches, clubs, libraries, museums, retirement villages and on radio. He currently performs more than 100 concerts a year across the MidAtlantic, Southeast, New England and Midwest states.

     Each Vintage Music Concert is filled with clever lyrics, catchy tunes and amusing anecdotes about Drug Store Cowboys, Swing Shift Maisies, Stage Door Johnnies and Tin Pan Alley Artists. Given his affinity for the amiable tunes and beguiling sentiments of the American Songbook, his concerts are renown for upbeat acoustic renditions of ragtime, jazz and swing classics.

     A former journalist, Lelen has played acoustic, steel-stringed guitar for 48 years and brings to concerts several early 20th-Century guitars, including some previously owned by notable players. Whether built by Gibson, Harmony, Larson, Martin, Regal, Schmidt, Vega or Washburn, each makes music that's striking for its tone, character and sustain — without pick-ups, gizmos or gimmicks.

     Last year Vintage Music Concerts celebrated its 10th anniversary. In the past decade Lelen has learned that playing a concert is like making love to an audience. "Nowadays, when people ask me what do I do for a living, I say, 'I sing love songs. What do you do?' "

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© 2011 Ken Lelen — All Rights Reserved

Visiting Carl Sandburg's Home

Flat Rock, NC

Tuesday, April 8, 2011

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Ever since I acquired a 1933 Martin OM-18 guitar once owned by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967), I've wanted to learn as much as I can about the famous poet, folksinger, biographer and womanizer.

                                                       National Park Service
Carl Sandburg Home — Flat Rock, NC

     I recently visited the Sandburg home because I want to document that part of his life associated with this rare and historic instrument, which he bought at a Los Angeles pawn shop in 1957 or 1958. What was the 80-year old poet doing in L.A. at the time? In addition to working on a script for The Greatest Story Ever Told, he was visiting his female friends classical music critic Mildred Norton (1910 - 2001) and Marilyn Monroe (1926 - 1962).
     So, now I'll begin to share what I found in the archives at the Sandburg Home as well my ongoing study with other sources who knew or worked with Sandburg.

     This was my first visit to the Sandburg Home, which is owned and managed by the National Park Service and set on 264 beautiful acres in western North Carolina. Built in the late 1830s, the structure houses Sandburg's personal belongings, library, furnishings, Mrs. Sandburg's goat farm, and some — but not all — of Sandburg's papers.
     I've learned that the majority of Sandburg's letters, diaries, photographs, books and ephemera are housed at University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, IL. Telephone calls and emails to the U of I Library with research questions and requests for online access to these materials have been unproductive.

     However, on a splendid spring day I worked with NPS curators Ashley Tate and Miriam Ferris at the Museum Preservation Center where thousands of Sandburg documents are stored. Together we poured through hundreds of letters as well as carbon copies of letters sent to or from Sandburg and his family by his literary agent Lucy Kroll and other correspondents. To my delight, several letters shed new light on Sandburg's lucrative work in Hollywood as well as his relationship with Norton, Monroe and other celebrities in the early 1960s.

     Sandburg owned and played many guitars during his lifetime. The U of I Library has about 100 period photographs of Sandburg playing a guitar. Late in life he favored nylon-stringed classical guitars to honor Andrés Segovia, his musical bon ami, and because they were easier on his fingers to play than steel-stringed instruments.

     When he passed away he left behind six instruments at his North Carolina residence, which the National Park Service possesses. Though protected, none are in playable condition. But mine, completed by C. F. Martin Co. on August 16, 1933, is the only one with extensive provenance, including dated, hand-written and post-marked love letters from Sandburg to Norton as well as a letter by Norton describing Sandburg's purchase of the his OM-18.

     I aim to document Sandburg's guitar playing, his work in Hollywood and his relationship with Norton, Monroe, Kroll and other female contemporaries. And lest it go unsaid, I also hope to locate other documents, photographs and ephemera associated with his 1933 Martin — the Sandburg guitar.

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© 2011 Kenneth Lelen - All Rights Reserved

Photographs and written materials may not be reproduced without permission.