Sean T. Hanratty smokes clove cigarettes and doesn't like padded bras. In his Levi's and plaid shirt, his minimalist, tattoo-less style is a nice ying to the hipster yang that has become a part of Brooklyn, his hometown. Even though he says he doesn't mind the recent cultural changes, because "Hipsters would like [my] music," there is something about this artist that calls back to a time when music was less contrived. When asked how he would describe his sound, he says "Soul music."

Sean is a part of the renaissance blues and folk music coming out of New York that frequently haunts venues like the Bowery Poetry Club. The artists in this coterie include bands like The Fools, A Brief View of the Hudson and The New York Howl. Mixing southern comfort with metro cards and pigeons, the common denominator is that most of these bands sound like they're plucked from some bayou in the late 1960's.

Standing just below 6 feet, Sean is lean, but his voice is deep and otherworldly. In fact, there's something about the air in the room we're in that makes me think of blues musicians now gone.

P: What do you bring to music right now that you think is unique?

S: Truth, but of course now, truth is debatable. It's got an honest feeling. To me that's what soul music is. That's why I can classify my music as soul music.

P: People have described your sound as echoing old blues music. What would you say to someone who takes issue with you singing a type of music that was introduced to America through Blacks?

Sean: That question would offend me. It's seems ignorant and sensational to me. I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think people would take offense to it. What I'm doing has nothing to do with race. I don't think anything that I do steps on the feet of anybody. It's a shock to me when I hear people say that such a voice comes out of my body. That's a shock to me. This type of music is universal; otherwise I wouldn't be playing it. It's a groove, it's a heartbeat, it's a soul, and it's a movement. Whatever I'm doing has nothing to do with race, it has to do with the accumulation of experience and history.....