Pokey LaFarge’s ‘riverboat chic’
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| Pokey LaFarge |
Pokey LaFarge’s music works on a couple of levels. With a cursory listen, it’s obvious that LaFarge and his band are drawing from a well of musical history. The pluck-pluck rhythms, woozy cornet blasts, and LaFarge’s Midwestern croon are evocative of a trip down the Mississippi, and have been dubbed “riverboat chic.”
But dig a little deeper and LaFarge’s music is hardly a museum-quality re-creation; it’s as much a mongrel as anything you’d consider truly American. Jazz, blues, and country collide in LaFarge’s music. He trades purity for alchemy and ends up with something that is ultimately contemporary.
“I’m an evolutionary musician,” says LaFarge when reached by phone while traveling through East Tennessee on a tour that brings his band to Boston on Saturday. “I learned my roots, but want to be my own person. I’m not trying to copy anybody. But it’s important to evolve through preservation.”
LaFarge says that in his teens he
listened to a lot of the same sorts of classic rock most kids latch
onto, but once he discovered the blues, he became far more interested in
that. As he studied more styles of traditional music, he was left to
wonder why so few of his generation were as enthusiastic as he was about
roots music.
“I found out who I am through my curiosity,” he says. “Through music, I learned about my country, and I learned about people.”
But what he’s seen among his peers is either a complete rejection of the past or ambivalence toward it.
“I’m in my 30s. A lot of people my age are not listening to older music. It’s like they are ashamed of the past. I talk up the great things this country has to offer. There is a diversity to be proud of,” he says, and targets what he considers one of the problems: “Corporations are running the country and telling us what our culture is.’’
LaFarge says he is most popular in the working-class venues he plays in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana.
“I relate to people there and my music goes over better there than in other places,” he says.
One shock to the system of the St. Louis musician was seeing how the South is producing a fraction of the traditional music it once did.
“There’s just a lot of crappy pop country music being made in places that used to put out such good music,” he says.
LaFarge sets aside polemics in his music and instead tells stories, about good times and bad times, that touch upon the American character.
For example, his new self-titled record opens with “Central Time,” a cheery ode to no-coast dwellers. There are songs about summer in the city, Kentucky sweethearts, and the devil’s temptations.
As Caitlin Rose, who provided harmony vocals for two songs on LaFarge’s new album, says, “I’m not into the idea of throwbacks, and I don’t think he is. He is so much more genuine than that.”
Rose calls LaFarge a “born entertainer,” and his live shows certainly spread his appeal among a grassroots network of music fans. This year, LaFarge is drawing even more attention. He has performed on an album by and opened concerts for Jack White, whose Third Man Records released LaFarge’s album. This week LaFarge performed on the “Late Show With David Letterman.” One of LaFarge’s songs made it onto the “Lone Ranger” soundtrack, and he and members of his band landed a cameo in the film.
LaFarge says this album, which follows the acclaimed “Middle of Everywhere” and “Riverboat Soul” records, is his most crafted to date. Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show co-produced the record, and LaFarge says it was the first time he spent more than two days in the studio working on a project.
“Having Ketch there was great. He knows me and he knows my music,” LaFarge says. “He wasn’t always right, but he inspired me.”
And even though LaFarge spent more time taking advantage of the studio, he did not derail the easy feel of his earlier work. If anything, the use of strings, clarinet, and piano simply add nuance to LaFarge’s music.
“Songs should be natural. Some may take five minutes to write, most take longer, but it doesn’t matter as long as it sounds natural,” he says.
Songwriting to this point, LaFarge says, has been about learning about himself and the world around him. Moving forward, he wants to write more songs that add commentary to the mix.
“I look forward to being more socially conscious in songs,” he says. “There are a lot of things that need to be talked about.”
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