Music of the Mountains: Where to be and what to see -- Nat Lefkoff

Nat Lefkoff has been playing music and writing songs since he was around the age of nine – songs which he now considers terrible. For him, music started as a hobby and developed into a passion, and he performed in several bands throughout junior high and high school. He found himself getting more comfortable performing in local bars and other venues, and eventually, he moved to Washington to attend college, where he became involved in more projects.Around his college years, he started DIY touring of his own projects, and in 2017, he released his debut self-titled album. Just before the COVID pandemic hit, he was gearing up to play music full-time after his career as a teacher in the Santa Cruz area. Once the pandemic came, he had to put his full-time music career on hold for a while, eventually getting a job in disaster relief at quarantine centers and homeless shelters.After some time, he worried he was compromising his dreams for a stable life. However, one day a song came to him in a dream. He recorded the chorus to this song, which ultimately developed into the title track of his sophomore album, Heavy Lifting, and took this as a sign to finally play music full-time.Over the last three years, he has found an immense amount of support among the musicians he has befriended and performed with, and he still plans on focusing on music full-time for the rest of his life. He cites Neil Young as an early influence, remembering that his dad would play Young’s songs in the car and pause to emphasize great lyrics.Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record Better off Dead here. Support the showThank you for listening to The Mountain-Ear Podcast, featuring news and culture from peak to peak! Additional pages are linked below.If you want to be involved in the podcast or paper, contact:Barbara Hardt, our editor-in-chief, at [email protected] Hickman, multimedia producer, at [email protected] Lammers, podcast host, at [email protected] inquiries: [email protected] to our website for all of the latest news. Subscribe to The Mountain-Ear in print and online.Submit local events to promote them in the paper and on our website.Find us on Facebook @mtnear and Instagram @mtn.earListen and watch on YouTube today.Share this podcast by scrolling to the bottom of our website home page or by heading to our main hub on Buzzsprout.Thank you for listening!