Kristen Linnartz
Staff Writer
Musician Austin Renfroe made a stop at the Union Stage on his 2014 tour hailing all the way from Atlanta, Ga. With a Gavin DeGraw-like sound, the Indie singer sang for the Springfield College community for the second time on Tuesday, March 3 during “Live at Lunch.”
Renfroe covered a couple Disney classics such as two songs from The Little Mermaid, including “Kiss the Girl,” Beauty and the Beast’s “Tale As Old As Time,” The Lion King’s “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King,” Mulan’s “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You,” and Tarzan’s “You’ll Be In My Heart.”
He also covered “Let it Go” from the movie Frozen which is currently ranked No. 4 on the iTunes Top 10 charts and was performed by Idina Menzel at the Oscars Sunday night.
He recently wrote a song called “Break Your Heart” that is getting picked up by Disney to be played in one of their upcoming movies.
“Of course I freaked out because that’s one of the best things ever,” stated Renfroe. “Disney really likes it and wants to use it in one of their upcoming films.”
Renfroe also wrote a song inspired by The Temptations about dealing with girls and their famous song “My Girl.” It talks about how he got started with music and why he continues to pursue music.
Reaching No. 1 on MTV’s Ourstage Indie Pop Charts for 30 weeks and MTV’s Ourstage Pop Song for November 2010 with his song, “Taking Me Under,” Renfroe has made a name for himself. Over the last three years he has been on the Indie Charts for MTV for over 70 weeks.
Renfroe also covered one of his favorite country songs by Keith Urban, “Somebody Like You,” and had a bunch of people at the Union singing along.
He encouraged students to tell people how they feel through music and play them a song if they were bad with words as he explained how he was. He tried to connect with the students and play songs that they would be able to relate to.
“I don’t always play at colleges. I play at different venues whether it’s at schools or in arenas,” said Renfroe.
However with all of the covers he sang, the most commotion was over The Backstreet Boys’ song, “I Want It That Way.” The crowd cheered and sang along as the song was going. It was a big hit.
Renfroe will continue his tour with his next stop in Hartford at Saint Joseph College onMarch 6.