If you've been following Illinois-bred troubadour
Pokey LaFarge since at least the mid-2010s you'll be familiar with his jazzy throwback brand of folk and country. It's a sound that's earned him a cult fan base, and one which he's found surprising ways to update, dipping into socially aware '60s-style soul on 2017's
Manic Revelations and 2020's
Rock Bottom Rhapsody. With 2021's
In the Blossom of Their Shade,
LaFarge takes his musical timelord skills to new heights, concocting a vintage-inspired rock & roll sound deep with decade-bending influences, that somehow remains stylistically coherent. It's also one of his most buoyant albums, playing like a balmy pool-side party. These are hooky songs, full of snappy rhythms and woody analog textures, including tasty tube amp guitar riffs, barroom piano, and woozy organ flourishes. Some of these giddy, back-to-basics aesthetics are at least in part due to
Chris Seefried, who co-produced and arranged the album with
LaFarge. Also adding an old-school sensibility is engineer/drummer
Alex Hall, who previously worked and played on
Rock Bottom Rhapsody and at whose Chicago-based Reliable Recorders/Hi-Style Studios
LaFarge recorded the album. While many of the tracks on
In the Blossom of Their Shade could have been recorded any time between 1950 and 1968, there's a timelessness and genre-bending quality to
LaFarge's work that brings to mind artists like
Paul Simon and
the Kinks'
Ray Davies. There's also a strong undercurrent of slippery, '50s-style R&B, and cuts like the swampy "Fine by Me" and the gospel-inflected "Killing Time" conjure a tantalizing hybrid of
Creedence Clearwater Revival and
Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Whether sidling into the tropical country-reggae of "Get It Fore It's Gone," or rising with throaty passion into the Spanish chorus of the
Roy Orbison-esque "Mi Ideal,"
LaFarge imbues each track with warm ebullience marked by his reedy, pitch-perfect harmonies. While
LaFarge might still be a time-traveling rock troubadour, he seems to have found the center of his musical universe with
In the Blossom of Their Shade. ~ Matt Collar
![Resound NYC [Resound NYC Version]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/mimages/0000000000000_p0_v0_s192x300.jpg "Resound NYC [Resound NYC Version]")
