POKEY LAFARGE – SOMETHING IN THE WATER
If both of them had lived at the same time, Sam Phillips would have immediately signed up Pokey LaFarge. In his new and tremendous record Something In The Water he is engaging one more time in the archaic American music. Deep Southern blues is mixed with 20s swing, country, folk, Dixie and jazz, which he transforms into a fresh modern sound. His musical style is taking the listener on a journey from Louisiana through Mississippi and Missouri, to Nashville, up to New York City over to Chicago and back – making one feel like travelling in former days and presents time the like.
Pokey LaFarge was born as Andrew Heissler in Bloomington, Illinois in 1983 and despite his young age Something In The Water is his already 7th full length studio album. As he has done in his previous records, he is digging deeply in the roots of American music. His sound is very much shaped by Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters, but it is also obvious that Dylan and Johnny Cash are among his big influences. This is also mirrored in the name of his band – The South City Three – where the resemblance to the man in black’s Tennessee Three cannot be denied. His affiliation to the Greenwhich Village singer songwriter scene is furthermore displayed in his stage name which he chose in honor of the way too early deceased Peter La Farge.
Pokey’s songwriting is about love and desire, about hanging on and about the wish to be able to move on. In the opener which is also the title track, a jumpy and energetic blues song he is singing about his girlfriend that obviously is mentally unstable and yet against every kind of rationalism he is unable to leave her. He does not love her despite her issues, he loves her because of them (She yells, she screams and she beats me / But I don’t mind the way she treats me / She’ll someday lead to my death, I know / But I’ll stay with her just the same). In the restless and fantastically bluesy “Actin’ A Fool”, which is loaded with banjo and harmonica soli, he is trying to forget a girl that left him and he is explaining how the break up is driving him crazy.
“Wanna Be Your Man” is very jazzy and the trumpet sound is dominating, while in “Underground” elements of the Glenn Miller Orchestra can be heard and the listener simply feels the urge to move his body along with the rhythm.
Pokey LaFarge is very much attached to the places he lived or has lived in. This can be witnessed in the heart aching folk ballad “Cairo, Illinois”, where he is singing about places that he obviously has a personal relation to (Take me to the bridge where the rivers collide / Down in Cairo, Illinois on a Saturday night), or in the booklet of album. There a picture can be found of him standing at the Cherokee Street/Texas Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri, where he is currently residing.
Something In The Water is rounded up by two cover versions, Walter Bullock’s “When Did You Leave Heaven” and the fantastic own interpretation of the blues veteran’s Tampa Red’s “All Night Long” which gives one the feeling of finding oneself in a speakeasy during prohibition time and having a great night of dancing and illicit drinking.
One of my favourite songs on the album is the folky “Far Away” which reminds very much of the work by Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger.
I have been mentioning a lot references to musical legends when speaking about Pokey’s song. This should point out the huge influence that those artists have had on him. It should, however, by no means say that he is simply copying his idols. The influence is evident, yes, but he is making his own songs and his own sound. His music is very modern, yet it could have also been recorded 40, 50, 60 or 70 years ago. Pokey LaFarge is carrying the listener away on a musical time travel through all sorts of American roots. He is watering these roots, fostering them and then harvesting brand new songs.
The final track of the album, an insanely dynamic swing song called “Knockin’ The Dust Off The Rust Belt Tonight” is perfectly describing this journey – From the C-H-I to the S-T-L / I was born to raise a ruckus and do it well / (…) / Take a jazz band with a country beat / It’s Midwestern swing for your dancing feet.
Pokey LaFarge is backed by a fantastic band. The different instruments are driving and shaping the songs, should it be the trumpet at one time, or the banjo and piano another time. Something In The Water is hot! It is an outstanding musical experience that has the ability of turning both your living room and a regular into an electrifying dance floor.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10 grizzlies
Released on Rounder Records, a division of Concord Music Group, Inc.
Track list:
1. Something In The Water
2. Wanna Be Your Man
3. Underground
4. When Did You Leave Heaven
5. Cairo, Illinois
6. Actin’ A Fool
7. All Night Long
8. Goodbye, Barcelona
9. Far Away
10. The Spark
11. Bad Girl
12. Knockin’ The Dust Off The Rust Belt Tonight
Pokey LaFarge
Rounder Records
Concord Music Group
Pokey LaFarge was born as Andrew Heissler in Bloomington, Illinois in 1983 and despite his young age Something In The Water is his already 7th full length studio album. As he has done in his previous records, he is digging deeply in the roots of American music. His sound is very much shaped by Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters, but it is also obvious that Dylan and Johnny Cash are among his big influences. This is also mirrored in the name of his band – The South City Three – where the resemblance to the man in black’s Tennessee Three cannot be denied. His affiliation to the Greenwhich Village singer songwriter scene is furthermore displayed in his stage name which he chose in honor of the way too early deceased Peter La Farge.
Pokey’s songwriting is about love and desire, about hanging on and about the wish to be able to move on. In the opener which is also the title track, a jumpy and energetic blues song he is singing about his girlfriend that obviously is mentally unstable and yet against every kind of rationalism he is unable to leave her. He does not love her despite her issues, he loves her because of them (She yells, she screams and she beats me / But I don’t mind the way she treats me / She’ll someday lead to my death, I know / But I’ll stay with her just the same). In the restless and fantastically bluesy “Actin’ A Fool”, which is loaded with banjo and harmonica soli, he is trying to forget a girl that left him and he is explaining how the break up is driving him crazy.
“Wanna Be Your Man” is very jazzy and the trumpet sound is dominating, while in “Underground” elements of the Glenn Miller Orchestra can be heard and the listener simply feels the urge to move his body along with the rhythm.
Pokey LaFarge is very much attached to the places he lived or has lived in. This can be witnessed in the heart aching folk ballad “Cairo, Illinois”, where he is singing about places that he obviously has a personal relation to (Take me to the bridge where the rivers collide / Down in Cairo, Illinois on a Saturday night), or in the booklet of album. There a picture can be found of him standing at the Cherokee Street/Texas Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri, where he is currently residing.
Something In The Water is rounded up by two cover versions, Walter Bullock’s “When Did You Leave Heaven” and the fantastic own interpretation of the blues veteran’s Tampa Red’s “All Night Long” which gives one the feeling of finding oneself in a speakeasy during prohibition time and having a great night of dancing and illicit drinking.
One of my favourite songs on the album is the folky “Far Away” which reminds very much of the work by Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger.
I have been mentioning a lot references to musical legends when speaking about Pokey’s song. This should point out the huge influence that those artists have had on him. It should, however, by no means say that he is simply copying his idols. The influence is evident, yes, but he is making his own songs and his own sound. His music is very modern, yet it could have also been recorded 40, 50, 60 or 70 years ago. Pokey LaFarge is carrying the listener away on a musical time travel through all sorts of American roots. He is watering these roots, fostering them and then harvesting brand new songs.
The final track of the album, an insanely dynamic swing song called “Knockin’ The Dust Off The Rust Belt Tonight” is perfectly describing this journey – From the C-H-I to the S-T-L / I was born to raise a ruckus and do it well / (…) / Take a jazz band with a country beat / It’s Midwestern swing for your dancing feet.
Pokey LaFarge is backed by a fantastic band. The different instruments are driving and shaping the songs, should it be the trumpet at one time, or the banjo and piano another time. Something In The Water is hot! It is an outstanding musical experience that has the ability of turning both your living room and a regular into an electrifying dance floor.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10 grizzlies
Released on Rounder Records, a division of Concord Music Group, Inc.
Track list:
1. Something In The Water
2. Wanna Be Your Man
3. Underground
4. When Did You Leave Heaven
5. Cairo, Illinois
6. Actin’ A Fool
7. All Night Long
8. Goodbye, Barcelona
9. Far Away
10. The Spark
11. Bad Girl
12. Knockin’ The Dust Off The Rust Belt Tonight
Pokey LaFarge
Rounder Records
Concord Music Group