Back in the early ’90s, an aspiring Austin musician was gaining lots of attention. Kevin Gant was on a trajectory for becoming really famous, and suddenly he disappeared from the scene and his fans… for 25 years.
Kevin wouldn’t reappear to the public light until director Jay Duplass reached out to him. Their conversation turned into a documentary, “Kevin”, that stumbled upon two weeks ago while browsing Netflix (I’ve been pushing the limits on the number of times a sane person can watch TopGear reruns, and this looked interesting enough).
Wow! What a story. Huge talent. Fascinating documentary about a local musician.
So, I finished the movie and went about my normal weekend.
Then, this past week while walking downtown after a DAA meeting with fellow board member, Fred Schmidt, I recognized Kevin from under his hat, waiting for the bus at Congress & 7th Street. Being a newly minted fan, I dorked out a little, and approached him just to share my enthusiasm for him and his story.
If you couldn’t immediately tell from the documentary, Kevin simply exudes positive energy. He was incredibly gracious given that a complete stranger (me) had just approached him. When I asked for a picture, he even suggested “hold on, let me get my guitar out!”, then handed Fred and I free copies of his latest CD. Cool!
Chance encounters with remarkable people. This is what makes downtown Austin such a great place to live, work, or just walk through.
If you don’t have a Netflix account, you can buy the movie on YouTube, “Kevin“, or checkout his music on iTunes.
Kevin, it’s nice to have met you. Thanks for telling your story. Cheers to your journey.
-Jude
Awesome write up and awesome that you ran into him. This is a good avenue for helping share him around. Sweet!