PORT TOWNSEND – Simon Lynge is well-known in Europe, having played his songs for 26,000 people in Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens, landed considerable international press and seen his debut album outsell the much-anticipated reissue of the Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Main Street” during its first week of release.
His image is different in Port Townsend, where he lives with his wife and young son, and this week spent two nights visiting open mics and playing short sets to enthusiastic audiences who are unaware of his popularity across the pond.
Lynge leaves town today for Germany, where he will participate in a live radio broadcast scheduled for Monday.
But he will return for a Dec. 10 appearance at the Port Townsend High School auditorium, one that will benefit fourth- and fifth-grade programs at the Blue Heron Middle School.
The concert will be at 7:30 p.m. at the auditorium at 1500 Van Ness St.
All schools need money and usually employ common fundraising tools such as bake sales or rummage sales, so having an international recording star perform to raise money for the PTA — parent-teacher association — is unusual.
For Lynge, it’s a logical step.
“My sister-in-law [Heather Taracka] has kids who are involved in the school and they were looking at ways to raise funds,” he said.
“I’ve had a very successful year. My debut album came out in Europe and I just got back from being over there for six months touring around, so we thought, why not do a show in my home town?”
Lynge, 30, has lived in the United States for six years, half of that time in Port Townsend.
He split his childhood between Denmark and Greenland, living in small towns where he wandered the hills and had to travel by boat for an hour to get to the nearest store.
He is of Inuit and Danish heritage, while the music he writes is descended from the singer-songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s.
He acknowledges comparisons to these influences, composing soft, accessible songs that place expressive lyrics against a fingerpicked background and sparse accompaniment.
His first album, The Future, was released in Europe in June but will not come out domestically until 2011, although a different version of the album saw limited release in the United States.
He expects to record a second album that will be released in Europe next June, and in the U.S. after the first has run its course.
Since this is the music business, Lynge said, everything can change.
In a short time Lynge has become an active part of the Port Townsend music community, appearing in local clubs and sharing the stage with other musicians.
He is greeted warmly when appearing at the Upstage or the Uptown, and has performed there enough times that the audience knows the words to his original songs.
“Port Townsend doesn’t have just one face,” he said.
“People are very generous with their praise. If they like something, they will go out of their way to tell you, and that means a lot that they will express their appreciation.”
While at the Uptown Pub on Tuesday night, he performed several of his originals, one that was played as background in the “Brothers and Sisters” television series, along with relaxed versions of the songs, “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” and “Lean on Me.”
Some audiences prefer the familiar but can be won over by something new.
“We are inundated with so much information on so many different fronts that people seek what they know because it offers them comfort, ” Lynge said.
“You have to convince people that you have something interesting, even if it is something they have never heard before.
“That’s what a good song is all about. It is just a little picture from my life that is similar to a picture from someone else’s life.”
Tickets prices to the Dec. 10 concert are $15 for adults, and $8 for children under 18, and are available at Quimper Sound, Crossroads Music and the Food Co-op.
A limited number of $60 VIP packages are also available, including prime seats, a CD, a tote bag and an invitation to an after concert reception with the artist at Sweet Laurette Café and Bistro.
________
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
