Vikesh Kapoor’s debut folk album ‘The Ballad of Willy Robbins’ narrates life of a construction worker

‘Concept’ album will release on April 15th.

By Deepak Chitnis

WASHINGTON, DC: With more and more desis making a name for themselves in the American music industry, they tend to gravitate towards a more hip-hop, fusion sound, incorporating modern dance beats with the sounds of their homeland to create a synthetic tapestry of east and west. But Vikesh Kapoor, a 28 year-old budding musician out of Pennsylvania, is marching to beat of his own folksy drummer.

Born and raised in the rural expanses of the Keystone state, Kapoor showed a keen interest in music from an early age. While playing in a band in high school, he was introduced to the sound of American music legend Johnny Cash, one of the most influential musicians of all-time. That experience, Kapoor says, turned him onto folk music and opened an entirely new world for him.

Now, the young man is gearing up for the release of his debut album, “The Ballad of Willy Robbins,” an entirely folk album that is unlike the vast majority of CDs currently dominating the American music marketplace. While most albums are a collection of random, disconnected songs by the same artist, “The Ballad of Willy Robbins” is a concept album, in which Kapoor uses the tracks to narrate the life of the titular fictional character, a middle-aged construction worker with a wife and personal issues galore.

“The Ballad of Willy Robbins, a concept album loosely based on a newspaper article, chronicles the brutal but hopeful story of a working class man who slowly loses everything: ambitions, health, family and shelter,” says Kapoor’s Facebook page. “It’s a worker’s tale, less specific to the blue-collar life as it is about anyone struggling to make something of themselves.”

The concept album is old hat for folk singers, who would often use songs and made-up characters to talk about problems in their own lives. Folk singing gained popularity in the mid-20^th century, particularly in New York City, where it expanded from a cult following to one of the most popular forms of music for a period of time around the 1960s. (The burgeoning folk music movement is also the subject of Joel and Ethan Coen’s most recent Oscar-nominated film, Inside Llewyn Davis.)

Now, however, folk music has been largely shoved aside by punk rock, hip-hop, and R&B (Rhythm and Blues), but Kapoor is hoping to change that.

Now based in Oregon, Kapoor says that he wants his songs to be about things that are timeless, so that his music doesn’t age. One of the biggest inspirations for his music is Howard Zinn, the late crusader against racial and class injustice at whose memorial Kapoor performed. Subsequently, during a trek through Europe “with a pair of fiery females,” Kapoor was finally motivated to create his own album.

“The Ballad of Willy Robbins” hits shelves in Europe on April 15, from label “Loose,” and is already available in the US, having been released last year on October 15. Kapoor is currently touring around the US to promote the album’s impending European release.

Below is Kapoor performing one of his songs, “Careless Love,” which he says is “for when you reflect on someone you once knew, maybe loved well, yet now no longer do. After the heartbreak and the growing pains.”

To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com