Korby Lenker is an American folk and Americana singer-songwriter and short story writer. He grows up in southern Idaho, along the Snake River, and later moves to the West Coast. In high school, he fronts the alt-rock band Clockwork Orange, which plays covers of The Cure and Love and Rockets at Mormon stake dances. He studies music theory at Western Washington University and graduates in 2001 after transcribing Phish songs, realising he is not a jazz guitar player, riding his bike a lot, and attending classes regularly.

Lenker spends about a year in a small cabin before turning towards acoustic music and bluegrass, which he first hears during that period. He begins flat-picking and draws on Doc Watson and Norman Blake. In 1998, he forms his first bluegrass band, Amandacello and the Blue Light Boys. The following year he gets a Martin D-18 and travels to West Virginia, where he lives alone in a studio apartment on the Ohio River for five months, eating grilled cheese sandwiches and visiting bluegrass festivals. He also attends Appalachian mountain church services, including services held by the snake-handling congregation of The Church of the Lord Jesus, where he appears in a videotaped service singing “Nearer My God to Thee” and shaking a tambourine.

In 2000, he returns to the West Coast and forms The Barbed Wire Cutters, a bluegrass group. He also releases a number of solo records. His sixth album, Bellingham, is made in 2003 and presents an acoustic roots sound recorded in San Francisco with dobro player Mike Grigoni and bassist Andrew Simmons. The album leads to a UK tour, during which he is interviewed by BBC Radio 2’s Bob Harris.

After returning from the UK, Lenker is selected from a field of 1,200 applicants as a finalist for the Chris Austin Songwriting Competition at MerleFest in North Carolina, where he places second. He also appears on Seattle station KMTT 103.7, The Mountain, on the station’s Music Lounge. He supports acts including Ray LaMontagne, Keith Urban and Tristan Prettyman, and in September 2005 he is chosen to showcase at the 4th Annual Americana Music Conference alongside Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle. His seventh record in five years, King of Hearts, is released in Seattle in November 2005. The album moves away from his bluegrass roots towards a more rock-oriented, songwriting-led approach, and he serves as writer, guitarist, singer, programmer and producer.