LEOs biweekly Sonic Breakdown column deconstructs a single song from a Louisville musician or band.
Its an existential affair, an existential love song, Kendall Elijah Dynamite told me about Lightnin Bug, a silky, rhythmic song drenched in beneath-the-surface meaning. Sometimes you kind of feel a lot of things dont matter. Like, youve disregarded a lot of things, but love being the only thing that shines through. And Lightnin Bug, at that point, takes on the metaphor of love. You know, in the summer, you see a lightning bug in the dark and, like love, it penetrates through that darkness.
Dynamites appreciation for the blues, especially the Delta blues, shines through in the song, but you can also pick up on his other influences. Mix in the heavy hip-hop pound of the drums and a healthy dose of honey-throated, old school R&B vocals, and thats what Lightnin Bug sounds like. Or, more simply, imagine DAngelo covering Furry Lewis.
With this song I just wanted to get that groove that was it, he said. I have this belief that its the groove that gets people. Lyrics dont get people in the first couple go-rounds. People will go back later and maybe dive into the lyrics but what gets you immediately is that groove.
Practically all musicians are subjected to the inescapable fate of being pigeonholed, but its the social constructs associated with that Dynamite sneers at. A listen through his latest album, Honeyman, not to mention his previous work, reveals Dynamite has range and versatility.
I feel like theres a stigma on black male artists making a certain type of music, he said. Like when you get into rock n roll or things that arent urban based like hip-hop. Im trying to break that stigma. Look at the first rock n roll songs by Chuck Berry, Sister Rosetta Thorpe, Big Mama Thornton. I wanna bring back that feeling and that boogie, that groove to a different demographic. I feel like its not cool for young black kids to like anything thats not rap. And I want to change that.
While songs like Lightnin Bug may be an easy song that wrote itself, his body of work thus far has deliberate control, flirting with a near-perfect balance of sound and space. Its a talent that takes most artists years to develop. Though Dynamite himself has the best explanation for it.
Im an old soul, he said, grinning and meaning every syllable of it.
Lightnin Bug is from the album Honeyman (2017)
This article appears in January 24, 2018.