Elvis Perkins, up-and-coming troubadour, plunks chords in the folk warrior tradition. Hell, check out the name. It’s music that puts you in a weird place, and if you’re not paying attention, it’ll catch up on you quicker than a good bottle of hobo wine, the romance of liquid salvation, and the allure of folk-music emancipation. The tour is sure to be full of jubilation, commiseration, and maybe even procreation. But don’t settle for a consolation, check out the emanation without hesitation.
His first and newest album Ash Wednesday lives up to its biblical allusions, of which there are many. If my younger, more Catholic years serve me, its title references the day when priests smudge vaguely cross-shaped ash on the foreheads of school children. I’m just secretly happy that he didn’t highlight a more traumatic holiday like Saint Blaise’s Day. There’s something about fish bone references that poke me right in the trachea.
He has a killer tourmate in Joan Armatrading, a UK singer-songwriter who just released her 18th disc, titled Into the Blues. She’s got a better set of pipes than Royal Albert Hall, and her new record sauces up the blues with folk, soul, and funk (of the funkiest variety).
Elvis Perkins’ll take a vacation from Dearland and play solo (but not so low you can’t hear him) ::GUFFAW:: The ‘in Dearland’ jive is Perkins with his backup band; get used to it:
*Joan Armatrading
** Elvis Perkins in Dearland
