Burke Ingraffia is a southern singer/songwriter who writes jazzy folk music, or perhaps folky jazz music.

He grew up in New Orleans and now gets his mail a couple of hours away in Alabama. He plays and writes using the jazz structures commonly found in New Orleans and emphasizes that feel with the leisurely wisdom of the Deep South. He also has a folk/Americana side with less 7th chords and more story lines.

 “I approach songwriting as a receptive process—positioning myself to receive something. I’m participating in God’s creation more than actively creating myself.” ~Burke Ingraffia

Listen to Burke’s Art as Worship interview on Empower Radio.

Although he doesn’t do liturgical or “praise and worship” music, Burke has been featured on EWTN’s Life on the Rock and Backstage. On these shows, he performed songs he wrote about St. Francis of Assisi and on the themes of a Catholic worldview such as forgiveness, mystery, and the contingency of our lives.

He says, “The Catholic church has a liturgical calendar with a different patron saint every day. Sometimes when I’m looking for inspiration, I’ll study the saint for that day and see what the themes of their life were. Then I take those words and ideas and turn them into music.”

In addition to writing and performing, Burke owns a web design and marketing business. He says, “I got into web development and marketing through doing it for my own music. I taught myself how to design websites and how to integrate multimedia into the web. These technical skills have turned into my day job. My music is always play—it’s creativity for creativity’s sake.”

Burke’s most recent album, Jazz Animals, was released in August 2011. He was a finalist in 2012 for the Kerrville New Folk award. Find out more Burke and his music at www.jazzanimals.com.

Listen each Wednesday at 9am Eastern on Empower Radio to hear another artist’s story. Share your art and your comments on the Art as Worship Facebook page. Namaste!