About That Song: Nick Hensley
About That Song #103
In our special series, singer-songwriter Sarah Morris interviews artists about the songs that shaped them.
Hi! I’m Sarah Morris. I’m wildly in love with songs and the people who write them. There have been a few songs in my life that have been total gamechangers—songs that made me want to be a songwriter and songs I’ve written that made me feel like I am a songwriter. About That Song is a space where I can learn more about those pivotal songs in other writers’ lives.
In the 103rd edition of our special series, I spoke with Minnesota treasure Nick Hensley about formative songs in his musical journey. Nick’s long career has included being the frontperson for rock band The District and for his current project, Love Songs for Angry Men. He’s also built two incredible music series: MNaked and the Minnesota Songwriter Showcase, the latter of which recently celebrated its 20th year of giving songwriters a warm stage to test out their new songs.
Nick Hensley. Photo credit: Vanessa Joy.
Sarah: Hi Nick Hensley! You’ve been a crucial part of the Twin Cities music scene for over two decades. The impact you’ve had on our community is immeasurable. I’d love to learn a little bit more about you, and the songs that have brought you to this moment in your journey—as both a writer and a champion of others’ songs. Do you remember the song you heard that made you want to be a songwriter? Tell us about that song.
Nick: I will start out by telling you that my dog’s name is Tom Puppy:)
Sarah: That is an amazing name.
Nick: Tom Petty‘s first solo record, Full Moon Fever, has been on repeat in every car I’ve ever owned since I was 16. And although there are some amazing “bangers” on that album… It was the folkier and softer side of the record that drew me in. The track “Yer So Bad” on there has always stuck with me throughout my songwriting journey. It’s got such great imagery and storytelling, and it’s just four chords and beautifully simplistic.
Sarah: Tom Petty is a master of that—in a way that I feel is similar to Lucinda. They only needed 4 chords! HOW DID THEY DO THAT?!?! Once you began writing, did you feel like a writer immediately? It took me a few years of writing before I believed it—was there a song that gave you that “a-HA! I AM a songwriter!” moment? Tell us about that song.
Nick: Around the age of 13, I started writing short stories and poetry, but I had not yet picked up the guitar or gotten proficient enough at piano to put my writing to music. A few years later, I wrote a few songs for different bands in high school and college. However, looking back, I don’t think I started to really hone my songwriting chops until after The District broke up in 2002. It was around that time I wrote a song called “Feed the Dog and Mow the Lawn.” It was my first deep dive into metaphorical songwriting combined with the storytelling I had learned from years of analyzing lyrics from the likes of Petty, Dylan, Tracy C, Waits, Prine, Joni, Willie, Martin Sexton, etc.
Sarah: Sounds like you went to school with the best teachers.
Nick: To this day, I love playing that 3-chord tune live, as people tend to sing along. Moreover, there’s something about songs that touch on the relationship between a father and son that really tug the heartstrings in folks, so I’ve had quite a few people over the years comment on that one. Anytime you can make a grown man cry, you’ve done something right.
Sarah: I’d say so. Your first Love Songs for Angry Men album was a live album. A few songs from it then received the studio treatment on your 2009 eponymous album, including “Call It What It Is,” which is one of those songs that wrings out all the ache of a relationship that’s ending. Can you tell us about that song?
Nick: Sadly, that song became a premonition. Shortly after I had a first draft of that tune, Joe Carey and I decided to record every live duo show we played around the Midwest (this would later become that live double disc). One night we were lucky enough to have his sister Jessica Carey in the audience at the Halftime Rec in Saint Paul, and the three of us took a stab at “Call It What It Is” and caught a little magic in a bottle (or a bottle of Jameson led to some magic). Looking back, I think I was also dead set on having at least one duet on my first solo record. About six years later, that song became eerily real, and my first marriage ended when we finally called the relationship what it really was.
Sarah: Ah—that’s a lot of story for one song—the magic of the capturing and the foreshadowed heartbreak. In 2024, you released Secondhand Love, which contains the tightly written song “The Bell Jar Family Photo.” You pack so much detail and story in just under 4 minutes. Can you tell us about THAT song?
Nick: So originally, I had read an article about Sylvia Plath’s son Nicholas. I’m not sure why it stuck with me—maybe the fact that we shared the same name or my curiosity of the correlation between family members and depression (Sylvia Plath had taken her own life shortly after she wrote The Bell Jar, and years later her son would take his own life). Plus, I had recently lost a couple of friends to suicide, so I think I decided to turn to songwriting to alleviate some of my grief.
In any event, I wanted to incorporate her metaphor of the bell jar into an entire family struggling … and looking not just from the outside in, but the inside out. Around that time, my wife Kelsie and I were at a Twins game sitting behind a very strange family of four whom we were dissecting (very prim and proper, sitting up straight, eating popcorn almost aristocratically!). I remember making mental notes: Wouldn’t it be interesting to write a song, verse to verse, about each family member and what they were going through, inside and out of their own bell jars …
Love Songs for Angry Men. Art by Nici Peper.
Sarah: Maybe somewhere that family is aristocratically eating popcorn and listening to this song! Let’s talk about the MN Songwriter Showcase—oh, the songs you have heard in your 20 years hosting this special series. It’s notable in its longevity and also in the fact that it gives songwriters a chance to perform and hear their song with band accompaniment—and you manage to bring on an AMAZING band, week after week. Can you tell us about that showcase? How did it start?
Nick: There are so many variables to this answer, I can’t even begin to put it all into words, but long story short… The Showcase started selfishly. I was doing late shifts at UPS as a supervisor between the Mall of America and the Airport, AND gigging 4 to 5 nights a week plus being on the road every other weekend. The schedule was killing me, so I was determined to quit that job and do music full-time. However, in order to do so, I had to try and find a way to do something in music where I didn’t have to sing for four hours straight.
Sarah: Oof, yes. That is a lot.
Nick: So one night, as fate would have it, Joe Carey and I showed up to our Sunday residency at the Narrows Saloon in early 2005, only to find that we had been bumped to every other Sunday … and shazam, the Minnesota Songwriter Showcase was born! After about six months, I decided to do it every Sunday and changed the Narrows gig to one Tuesday a month. Later that year, Joe’s brother Jim Carey would join me on hosting duties and backing up people on the keys. At this time, it was more of an open mic, although we did have several regulars and lots of songwriting friends that would join us every Sunday. A couple years in, Nick Salisbury walked through the doors, and the Showcase was forever changed for the better.
Sarah: That sounds about right! When Nick Salisbury walks in the world, most things are changed for the better (full disclosure, he plays bass in my band so I am all kinds of biased, but also, I think, correct)!
Nick: Nick helped us legitimize the Showcase (hinting that maybe we should tell people to bring in charts and organize the format a little). His feet have been stuck to the floor, rear stage left, for about 17 years now (figuratively and literally because of all the drinks the college kids spill on Saturday night). Around 2009, it was starting to blow up, so the bar gave us a little bigger budget to invite more players and have mini backing bands, etc.
Post-COVID, we decided to trim it down to 8:45 to 11:30 with a brief intermission, and we rotate the players week to week, so the songwriters get a wide variety of instrumentation from which they can choose. In 2015, we added a second location for the Showcase so we could be on both sides of the river. The Aster Café | Minneapolis Showcase is on Wednesday nights from 7:30 to 9:30. This one does not have a backing band, but it’s a beautiful venue and a perfect listening room for the showcase, which, in turn, results in a more storytelling version of the Showcase.
We just celebrated the 20th anniversary at Plums (aka an undisclosed location in Saint Paul) with the entire Neighborhood Quartet backing up 33 songwriters on stage and more than 200 people in the room, and we will be celebrating the 10th anniversary this fall at the Aster.
Sarah: AMAZING. Thank you so much for all you’ve done for our community—as a songwriter and as a bringer-together-of-people. Just think about all the lives you’ve changed! The songs that are out in the world because they had a chance to be heard on your stage. Congratulations and here’s to many more! Thank you so much for stopping by About That Song.
Listen to “The Bell Jar Family Photo”
Details for MNaked and MN Songwriter Showcase
The Showcase takes place every Wednesday at the Aster Cafe in NE Minneapolis from 7:15 PM to 9:30 PM and every Sunday at Plums Tavern in Saint Paul from 8:45 PM to midnight.
Information on the showcase can be found at the links below, but here is the basic info on how to attend or participate.
Both shows are FREE, but otherwise quite different.
Sunday has 12–15 artists with 2–3 rotating backup players (from percussion, pedal steel, bass, Hammond organ, cello, to lead guitar and slide) from some of the most talented players in town! It is considered to be one of the best-kept secrets in Minnesota music and we take that very seriously.
Wednesday hosts 10 acts (5 per hour), but it’s all stripped down to just you and your acoustic guitar or house piano.
No open slots on either night. To participate, we ask for either a referral from a friend that already plays the showcases and/or a video of you playing an original song. Nothing too fancy, YouTube links and personal links work best - preferably NOT Google format! To find out more info or send video or name of referral, email angrymen@comcast.net.
Secondhand Love Album Credits
Nick Hensley & The Love Songs For Angry Men • ASCAP 2024
Nick Hensley - Writer, Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Lead and Backing Vocals, Keys, Harmonica, Co-Producer
The LSFAM Players & Beloved Friends:
“Sugar” Shane Akers - Dobro & Lap
Joe Carey - Lead Acoustic Guitar
Nick Salisbury - Bass
Blair Krivanek - Telecaster
Kenny Wilson - Pedal Steel
Jessica Carey - Backing Vocals
Laura Hugo - Backing Vocals
Jordan Carlson - Drums
Jason Craft - Hammond B3
Michelle Kinney - Cello
Luke Enyeart - Lead Guitars
Kale Olsen Reed - Violin
Greg Schutte - Drums & Aux Percussion, Co-Producer, Engineer
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarah Morris. Photo credit: Tom Smouse.
Sarah Morris is a superfan of songs and the people who write them, and a believer that certain songs can change your life. A singer-songwriter / mama / bread maker / coffee drinker who recently released her fifth album of original material, she’s been known to joyfully sing with people in her Big Green Bathroom.
