Live Wire: John Lentz brings songs and stories to Luthier’s Co-op

EASTHAMPTON — It’s a safe bet that most local musicians you see toiling away in local clubs are doing it largely for the love of their art.

But it’s one thing to see a guy in his 70s perform tunes out of devotion to his music. It’s even more impressive to learn the singer involved just released his first album earlier this year.

But that’s what you have in John Lentz, who will play at Luthier’s Co-op in Easthampton on Nov. 13 from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

Lentz, who makes his home in Turners Falls, has been a musician his whole adult life, starting out busking on the West Coast in the 1970s. As usual, real life — getting a job and raising a family — took center stage for a lengthy period, but Lentz always kept music on the back burner.

After moving to Massachusetts, he started attending the Vermont Jazz Center’s summer workshops and met pianist Harvey Diamond. This led to Diamond inviting Lentz to jam with him in an unused rehearsal studio during the 2020 lockdown. Ultimately, the collaboration resulted in the album, “how strange the road should be so easy,” a diverse tapestry of jazz standards woven in with lesser-known tracks.

This will be just Lentz’s fourth gig this year, so although he hopes to play out more often soon, this show is a great opportunity to both check him out and serve a good cause: Lentz is donating all proceeds from the show to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.

And while Lentz leans heavily on jazz standards, he’s not afraid to swim in other musical waters.

“I like to dive deeply into the jazz catalog, finding songs that are less well known by the general public,” he said in a recent interview with The Republican. “I also incorporate more current music; at this gig, I’ll also be singing songs by Tom Waits and Billie Eilish.”

That willingness to embrace diversity of sounds is reflected in the singers whom Lentz counts as influences: Van Morrison, Nat King Cole, Ray Charles, Sheila Jordan, and Dominique Eade, among others.

While Lentz performs with various musicians at different times, accompanying Lentz at the Nov. 13 show will be keyboardist Bill Winslow and bassist Wes Brown.

“I currently perform with a small group of pro and semi-pro musicians. They each have strong professional ethics, great listening skills, and are nice people and fun to create with,” he said. “Most importantly, we all have the desire to serve the music.”

When talking about what he likes about going out and playing before a live audience, Lentz mentioned that he recently described himself to another singer as being “60% storyteller and 40% musician.”

“Singing songs and storytelling have an ancient history and were offered by a teller or bard to groups of people. That’s just how it works. So, there’s that,” he said. “But also, there’s just the immediacy of performing live, where one can try out ideas and get instant feedback on whether they work or not.”