Pokey LaFarge brings his seven-piece musical medicine show of American roots music to Newcastle University basement on Saturday night.
Pokey uses his original lyrics which he sets amid a range of musical forms from western swing, bluegrass and ragtime to blues, country and folk. It is pretty much a slice of time-honoured roots music forms which makes Americana so rich in its diversity.
Pokey LaFarge may dress like a ‘30s throw-back - he is,coincidentally, in his early thirties - but his original songs are peppered with everyday references which, one assumes, have been absorbed osmosis-like on his endless road of touring the USA and beyond. Born Andrew Heissler, Pokey - who is from Bloomington, Illinois - spent time as mandolinist with the Hackensaw Boys before he embarked on a path of his own devising. He had released a couple of albums before making Riverboat Soul (2010) with the South City Three and it was that record which brought him to a much wider audience. Pokey released a couple of others (one of them recorded live in Holland) before combining with Jack White (of White Stripes and founder of Third Man Records) for the self-titled album in 2013. The producer of that album, Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, said at the time, “Well, all I can say for certain is nobody sings much like Jimmie Rodgers anymore and nobody crows, rakes, rips, yips, shouts, buzzes or croons quite like Pokey LaFarge either.”
Pokey LaFarge’s current album, Something In The Water (Rounder Records), was issued earlier this year and features twelve songs, all but one - Tampa Red’s All Night Long – written or co-written by Pokey. It is good-time music in a variety of traditional styles and clothing to match. However, the content is thoroughly modern and relevant but with a firm grasp on, and due respect to, some bygone mentors. The band has appeared on Later... with Jools Holland, The Late Show in Ireland, Letterman in the USA and contributed to the soundtrack of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. This is one of only four UK shows and is promoted by a joint effort by the Cluny and Jumpin’ Hot Club.
Robert Cray makes another of his regular trips to the region next Tuesday night for a show in Sage Gateshead’s Hall 1. When Cray first came to the UK, in the early ‘80s, he was considered to be the “young-gun” on the blues circuit although he was actually in his early thirties at the time. He made quite an impact here over the following decade after establishing his soulful vocal and fluid guitar credentials with Bad Influence (1983) and particularly with Strong Persuader (1986). Over the last twenty years he has scarcely put a foot wrong in the USA with all twelve of his albums from that period - Some Rainy Morning to In My Soul - making the Billboard Blues top-ten, all but one making the top-five.
Cray, who is originally from Columbus, Georgia, has some twenty-odd albums to his name and is a five-time Grammy- winner. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011. Whilst he has headlined in his own right for forty years, Cray has also undertaken world-tour duties with Eric Clapton – he was with Clapton, Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan on the night of the latter’s death in a helicopter crash in Wisconsin in 1990 - and on either side of that tragic event he recorded with John Lee Hooker on two of the great man’s late-career albums, The Healer (1989) and Mr Lucky (1991). His current album, recorded live over four nights, celebrates his four decades in music to date.
Friday night has two duos in Newcastle with quite differing appeal. The Live Theatre’s lovely Studio venue plays host to the Texas folk-country pairing of BettySoo (vocals/guitar) with Curtis McMurtry (vocals/banjo/guitar). The former has a new album, When We’re Gone, just out and it is sharply-produced, soul-baring personal look at life’s vagaries. McMurtry, at a mere twenty-three, is steadily building a reputation on the Americana circuit. He is the son of musician James McMurtry and grandson of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Larry McMurtry.
Hoochie Coochie, welcomes an intriguing coupling, New York guitarist Joe Driscoll in tandem with the West African kora-player, Seckou Kouyate. The duo (they have bass and drums, too) promise material from folk to hip-hop and African-groove to reggae and plenty in between, all in evidence on their new, Faya, album. Kouyate’s comment on the collaboration summed-up the ethos that music is the international language when he said, “He doesn’t speak any French, and I speak no English… but through music, we understand.”
Saturday night in north Northumberland offers another chance to catch the talented, literate and engaging Indiana singer/songwriter, Krista Detor, who is guest at St Cuthbert’s House hotel in Seahouses. Krista has a new album, Barely (her seventh in a dozen years), which sees her in minimalist mode, where her articulate lyrics are lightly embellished by wood and strings.
Next Thursday night, Sage 2 has another visit from Eliza Carthy who must be applying for a Geordie passport given the frequency of her visits here ! This time she comes mob-handed with the Wayward Band - ten-strong when all members are on stage - to showcase their new album, You Know Me. The band includes Sam Sweeney (Bellowhead), Lucy Farrell (Emily Portman), Saul Rose (Edward II and others) plus members of other touring bands. They may be wayward but they will all be in Sage 2 on Thursday night.
Space may limit a fuller focus on the Gateshead International Guitar Festival which runs from Friday, 16th for a fortnight, but here is a flavor of what is on offer. Guests this year, as in previous festivals, range across several genres and include the “jazz and beyond” of the Nicolas Meier Group, Juan Martin & Chapparo de Malaga (Flamenco), American hot-shot blues-rocker Ryan McGarvey, Antonio Forcione and Adriano Adewale, Cuban classical player Ahmed Dickinson and Spanish prodigy Mabel Millan and others. Hopefully there will be an opportunity to feature more as the festival unfolds.
