Kirk Fleta has become a familiar face at any number of East Tennessee venues, including several in Blount County. He’ll continue that streak when he plays the Songs and Stories series at The Station in Louisville on Wednesday, Oct. 7.
“I don’t care about fortune and fame,” he insisted. “I just want to write songs that stand the test of time and that hopefully will inspire all who listen. All I know is I have to be playing and singing and continuously writing.”
-Kirk Fleta
He’s also shared stages with several nationally known acts, including Goose Creek Symphony, the Wooten Brothers, Shawn Mullins and Marc Broussard, and he’s built a strong local following on energetic acoustic performances and a sound that draws on both Delta blues and flamenco. His delivery is personable but driven, full of rhythm, passion and easy enthusiasm.
Fleta’s debut CD, “Bare Bones,” is, as its name implies, a stripped-down take on his upbeat approach. His audiences seem to agree; by his count, it has sold more than 16,000 copies at his live shows alone. “The words to those songs on ‘Bare Bones’ were a result of my inspiration and desire to connect with what’s real and most important in life,” Fleta said. “I live my life that way. My motto is ‘Just Mean It!’”
It’s a mantra born of experience, both good and bad. Fleta’s family includes several gifted musicians. His grandfather, Miguel Fleta, was a world-famous Spanish tenor, and his mother, Paloma Fleta, sang pop songs with her sister Elia while touring the globe.
“My mother Paloma had a wonderful sense of humor, but was also amazingly stoic,” Fleta told this writer. “In either capacity, her presence alone would capture a room. She inspired me with that mere presence. As I got older, and my father played her music and my grandfather’s operas, I was truly inspired by their sound. I found myself using the art of musical expression to help me free myself from the angst of turmoil at home. My frustrated father was running for the Senate against Howard Baker and fighting to save my mother’s life from cancer. Dad would take his frustrations out on us kids verbally, and that happened all too often unfortunately.”
Nevertheless, the inspiration for making music remained a constant. “My footsteps up the five-mile driveway to my grandfather’s house would create the beat, then the melody would appear, and then the words poured out of whatever was in my heart and soul, happy or sad. I wrote the best songs I’ll never remember on that five-mile driveway!”
Fleta also took solace in nature. He taught himself guitar and started writing songs, then became a wandering journeyman of sorts, buying a Volkswagen bus that was his full-time home for the next 10 years. During an extended stay in Mexico, he took refuge in a hut on the Caribbean coast.
“My direction into a somewhat rebellious, free-spirited lifestyle was natural for me, but also fueled by observance of my father’s frustration while trying to save my mother’s life,” Fleta said. “I knew that being frustrated all the time was no way to live. I embraced love, compassion, and an open soul to receive the music from inside of me, listening all the time. Keeping it real was the deal.”
Not surprisingly, his songs reflect a life that’s had its ups and downs. “End It Right Here,” “Life’s What You Make It” and “Bare Bones” carry a certain don’t-sweat-the-small-stuff attitude and a desire to shake free of the pressures of modern life.
Fleta calls Gatlinburg home and spends much of his time rebuilding the house he lost in the wildfire that devastated the area in November 2016.
“Losing everything in the wildfires was completely unexpected and severely devastating to me,” he said. “I had no insurance, I had debt, and I lost the house I had built with my own two hands and with a couple of friends. I had just moved everything I owned into it, and three months later it went up in a cloud of smoke. I was ruined. My normal psyche stands positive and strong, but I felt beat down nonetheless. My material possessions were a side beating to losing all my recordings from my whole career and a stack of all of my journals and writings from throughout my lifetime.”
Still, Fleta’s resolve is intact.
“I don’t care about fortune and fame,” he insisted. “I just want to write songs that stand the test of time and that hopefully will inspire all who listen. All I know is I have to be playing and singing and continuously writing.”
That desire and determination are essential to the music he makes. “What distinguishes me as a singer and songwriter is a combination of my self-taught aggressive guitar style, my creative verve, and my lyrics, which come straight from a desire to inspire … much like how I was inspired by my heroes of old,” he said. “I am continually creating and writing all throughout the construction of my house while also playing shows year-round. As long as the music I write is honest and true, hopefully I’ll always have a fan base, audience and friends to see me through!”
If you go
Who: Singer-songwriter Kirk Fleta
What: Songs and Stories series
When: 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 7
Where: The Station, 4206 Miser Station Road, Louisville
How much: $26
Tickets: Eventbrite
