Meet TLK
“TLK melds heartfelt lyrics with a sound that shifts between pop, country and folk.”
Todd Lewis Kramer, affectionately TLK, is a Connecticut-bred singer/songwriter who called New York City home for more than a decade until unpredictable times prompted a multi-year road trip with his guitar in tow.
“His tracks are rather affecting in the way they’re raw but refined, intimate but booming.”
Origins
—
It all started on long hauls from his home in Woodbridge, CT to the Vermont mountains with his big family of seven during cold New England winters. The Beatles and James Taylor dominated those rides and became musical heroes.
Twenty-five years later, TLK still considers Taylor the ultimate aspiration and comparison for his troubadour style, mainly for their similar smooth, baritone vocals. (Though he admits there’s still a long way to go to achieve JT’s virtuosic fingerpicking style). While he has certainly incorporated other influences into his sound over the years, he is still most comfortable on a stool with an acoustic guitar.
TLK moved to New York City and began writing songs in earnest in 2009, and quickly ingrained himself into the city’s singer/songwriter scene, spending four years frequenting Caffe Vivaldi’s Monday night open mic. There, he learned how to play in front of an audience and met a community of musicians that has become like a second family.
Now a decade and some later, his catalog includes five albums and a handful of singles, enough to fill the airwaves on that aforementioned drive to the mountains.