How a guitarist from Asheville, North Carolina, went from playing lead in a shoegaze-country band called Wednesday to writing some of the sharpest, funniest, saddest songs in American rock, one busted golf cart and one rented Ferrari at a time.
The Short Version
Who Is This Guy?
MJ Lenderman (Jake Lenderman) is a songwriter and guitarist from Asheville, North Carolina, known both for his solo records and as the lead guitarist in the band Wednesday. His songs live in a specific, very American register: slack, funny, deadpan sentences about washed-up guys and small humiliations, sung over guitar tones that swing between tender pedal steel and blown-out Crazy Horse noise.
Two things make him singular. First, the voice on the page: he writes like a short-story writer, dropping specific, absurd details (a rented Ferrari, a bought boat, a bad round of golf) into songs that turn out to be about grief, ego, and midlife failure. Second, the guitar, unhurried, unshowy, and devastating, closer to Neil Young's Crazy Horse than to any Nashville session player.
His 2024 album Manning Fireworks was his breakout, landing on best-of-the-year lists across the music press and turning him from an indie-scene favorite into one of the most acclaimed songwriters of his generation.
The small, sun-bleached America his songs live in.From Wednesday's Guitarist to Solo Breakout
The Story
His path runs through one band's rise and a parallel solo catalog that quietly got sharper with every record.
The unhurried, unshowy guitar tone at the center of his records.
2017
A self-titled debut, mostly alone
Lenderman released his first solo album, a lo-fi, country-leaning record made largely on his own, while based in Asheville and playing in local bands.
2019
Joins Wednesday
He joined the Asheville band Wednesday, led by songwriter Karly Hartzman, as lead guitarist, becoming a key part of the group's loud, shoegaze-inflected take on Southern indie rock.
2021
Ghost of Your Guitar Solo
His second solo album sharpened the songwriting and the guitar work, building a small but devoted following outside of Wednesday.
2022
Boat Songs
The record that put him on the map beyond Asheville: wry, plainspoken songs about golf, boats, and Dan Marino, paired with a heavier, more confident guitar sound. Critics started paying attention.
2023
Wednesday's Rat Saw God
Wednesday's breakout album, on which Lenderman's guitar and songwriting fingerprints were all over the arrangements, raised his profile further as the band toured widely.
2024
Manning Fireworks
His major breakout: a sharper, funnier, sadder record about broken men and small-town failure, released on Anti- Records. It landed near the top of countless year-end lists and made him a critical favorite well beyond the alt-country world.
2024–present
Arenas, late night, and a growing songbook
He toured behind Manning Fireworks at a rapidly growing scale, played network television, and kept his dual life going, still splitting time between his own band and Wednesday's guitar chair.
Four Songs, One Education
Start Here
These four songs, all from his two most acclaimed records, are the fastest way into what makes MJ Lenderman worth caring about. Watch in order.
01 · The One That Hooks You
"She's Leaving You" — 2024
A middle-aged man cheats his way through a midlife crisis until he gets caught, then blasts Clapton in a rented Ferrari on his way to Vegas. Funny, sad, and the clearest snapshot of his songwriting.
02 · The Deadpan Comedy
"Wristwatch" — 2024
A litany of shallow possessions sung with total sincerity, and a video of Lenderman driving an oversized truck into the same overpass, again and again. His humor and heartbreak in one three-minute package.
03 · The Breakthrough
"You Have Bought Yourself a Boat" — 2022
The Boat Songs single that widened his audience: a slack, wry character study wrapped around one of his catchiest hooks. The song that made a lot of people go looking for the rest of the record.
04 · The Live Staple
"Knockin'" — 2021
A longtime favorite of his live sets, and a distillation of the loose, Crazy Horse-indebted guitar sound that runs through everything he does.
The Studio Catalog
The Albums 4 to start with
Four solo records so far, each one sharper than the last. The gold-topped card is the essential entry point; the purple marks the earliest, roughest work.
2019
MJ Lenderman
The lo-fi, self-titled debut: rough-edged country-rock recorded mostly solo, before the songwriting fully found its footing. A window into where it started.
The record that broke him out of the local scene: wry, plainspoken songs about golf, boats, and Dan Marino, and the guitar tone that would become his signature.
The masterpiece and the obvious starting point: sharper, funnier, and sadder than anything before it, and the record that made him a critical favorite well beyond the alt-country world.
Lenderman's solo records lean on a tight circle of Asheville collaborators, several of whom double as his bandmates in Wednesday.
The low-key, front-porch scene behind the records.
MJ LendermanGuitar / VocalsSongwriter and bandleader; also lead guitarist in Wednesday
Karly HartzmanVocals / GuitarWednesday's frontwoman and Lenderman's longtime collaborator and bandmate
Xandy ChelmisLap SteelWednesday's lap steel player, whose pedal steel textures run through Lenderman's solo records too
Colin MillerProduction / GuitarFellow Asheville songwriter and frequent producer and collaborator on Lenderman's records
The Roots of the Sound
Influences
Lenderman's music sits at the intersection of ragged Southern indie rock, classic country songwriting, and the loose, distorted guitar tradition of Crazy Horse. Here is where it started.
Crazy Horse Rock
Neil Young
Harvest, the ragged, unhurried guitar tone and loose, wounded feel that runs through Lenderman's records.
Lenderman's catalog is small enough to hear in full, and the world around it, his other band, his collaborators, keeps it growing.
The long, plain American road his songs keep coming back to.
Wednesday — his other band, led by Karly Hartzman. Start with Rat Saw God (2023) to hear his guitar playing in a louder, shoegaze-leaning context.
The Bandcamp catalog — earlier EPs and singles, including Knockin' (2021), live on Bandcamp and fill in the gaps between the four full-length albums.
Collaborations — guest turns and features with other Asheville-scene songwriters, including Colin Miller and Wednesday's other members, extend the world of the records.
Late night and festival sets — televised and festival performances since Manning Fireworks show how the songs translate to bigger stages without losing their slack, conversational feel.
The Way to Listen
Start with Manning Fireworks front to back, paying attention to the lyrics as much as the guitar. Then go back to Boat Songs to hear where the voice came from.
