Bryan Wawzenek grew up in Forest Park, IL, a Chicago suburb infamous for two things: the sweet confection known as Lemonheads and an inordinate amount of cemeteries. Amid all the candy and dead people, Bryan somehow found time to get schooled in ’60s pop, ’70s rock and ’80s alt-rock. In junior high, he helped start a school newspaper, just so he’d have a place to write about the new R.E.M. album. Through high school and college, he expanded his musical horizons to include genres such as hip-hop, country and electronica and continued to find ways to meld his two passions – music and writing.
After majoring in journalism at Marquette University, Bryan worked as an entertainment writer and editor at daily publications in Wisconsin and Illinois, covering major music festivals like Lollapalooza, Summerfest, Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival and more. He moved to Nashville to take the position of International Editor at Gibson, where he gets to walk past pictures of Les Paul, Chet Atkins, B.B. King and Pete Townshend anytime he visits the restroom. Even better, he gets to employ his editing expertise and share his love of music on a constant basis.
Bryan lives in the Nashville suburbs with his wife Libby, and several shelves loaded with his favorite tunes.