Austin Renfroe, an upcoming musician originally from Atlanta Georgia, used his guitar and unique vocals to serenade UT students on Sept. 16. Unlike Renfroe’s other performances which usually include a full band, the singer performed exclusively as an acoustic soloist that night.
Set up right by Jazzman’s Cafe in Morsani Hall, Renfroe jammed out to covers such as “I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing” by Aerosmith, and “I’ll Be” by The Goo Goo Dolls. Renfroe also performed songs of his own original work including, “Break Your Heart,” “Taking Me Under,” “Song About Girls” and “Taylor Swift.” Renfroe took his audience through a backstory of each song he sung and added a little humor to get everyone involved with his performance.
Renfroe told students that he wrote the song “Taylor Swift” after seeing her on television. As he was writing his song and his producers asked him what he wanted to title it, the first thing that came onto his mind was Taylor Swift. To Renfroe’s surprise Taylor Swift heard the song and gave him a call to give him a thumbs up for the great hit.
“If any of you are asking, I do not have Taylor Swift’s number anymore,” Renfroe told the audience.
Renfroe blew the crowd away with a whirlwind mix of Disney classics, reliving every girl’s crush of the Backstreet Boys and N’Sync, and Britney Spears’ famous song, “Hit Me Baby One More Time.”
Renfroe is currently on a tour of college campuses around the US and has performed at various universities including Indiana University, Lewis-Clark State, and Drake University.
“Universities are a great place to connect with my demographic,” Renfroe said. “I play at these types of venues because it is a great place to connect with people and it’s also a great atmosphere for people who are hungry for great music. All of that is provided in one place, I’ll show up and I’ll be there.”
Despite the busy crowd of students getting food in the Morsani dining hall, Renfroe was able to attract quite a crowd to watch him perform for an hour.
“The crowd was great,” Renfroe said. “Especially for all of this, with everything else that’s happening and with all the food, I think it is the perfect spot.”
Music has always been a part of Renfroe’s life and his original songs are linked to his background. Renfroe told students he has been performing professionally for around seven years. “I amcompetitive,” Renfroe said. “My brother and sister both played instruments and I wanted to play better than they did. And I needed a skill to impress a girl that I liked.”
Renfroe also performed his original song, “Taking Me Under,” which was voted as the winner of SiriusXM’s Breaks the Band and was No. 1 in the Indie Charts. And being a huge Disney fan, he was also given the opportunity of a lifetime when the producers of Disney wanted one of his songs, “Break Your Heart” to be used in one of their upcoming movies. Renfroe said that Disney has not released the details of the movie that his song will be used in yet.
“I’ve always really enjoyed Disney music in general when I was growing up and Aladdin was probably one of my favorite movies to watch,” said Renfroe said. “I have a little sister and she watched a lot of the Disney stuff and I ended up loving it just as much as she did. When I had the opportunity to play at these college venues, it was one of the things that helped connect with people. They really enjoyed the music.”
Renfroe’s music won the hearts of several UT students as some lined up to chat with him after the show and even purchased his album for their listening pleasure.
UT freshman, Andrea Fowler saw Renfroe’s whole performance and says she enjoyed every bit of his show.
“He did such a good job incorporating the audience into it,” the film and media arts major said. “I liked that he had the covers and his original stuff so that we got a taste of both sides to his music.”
Talia Shuman, a math and music double major in her freshman year only got to see half of Renfroe’s performance but still was able to catch a glimpse of his last song.
“I absolutely loved it,” Shuman said. “He’s a really good musician and he gave me the chills at one point. I had to leave halfway through and it made me sad but as I was walking back, I heard Brittney and I started jamming out to it.”
Renfroe’s first album, “Unexpected” is currently available on iTunes.
Fatin Mohamad Amin can be reached at F.mohamadamin@spartans.ut.edu