By james art Saturday night at Chelsea’s Live, the decidedly non-mainstream Pokey LaFarge returns to Baton Rouge for the first time in over a dozen years.
LaFarge has aptly titled his new genre-bending album ‘Rhumba Country’. Released in May, his myriad influences—Cuban mambo, Brazilian tropicalia, Jamaican reggae and mid-20th-century US-made rock and roll—offer more than the singer-songwriter’s musical incongruity.
“I’ve always had an aversion to the homogenization of culture,” Lafarge said. “When everyone looks the same and sounds the same, I want to be original.”
LaFarge’s current set list usually includes half a dozen songs from the well-received “Rhumba Country.” For example, No Depression magazine says the album’s “good vibes will inspire souls of all persuasions.” The American songwriter labels the project as an “upbeat mood lifter.” AllMusic says, “LaFarge manages to show some depth while still having fun.” And perhaps most importantly, Alternate Root notes, “If there’s a healing power in music, ‘Rhumba Country’ has it.”
Lately, LaFarge has been thinking about healing. Remembering the downward spiral he experienced as he succumbed to the destructive rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, he recalled the exact day he saw the light.
“I found Christ on January 12, 2019. Seeing God’s work being done in my life is amazing, profound and encouraging. It’s all part of the creative process and inspiration behind my past two albums.”
Being a musician is similar in some ways to working on a farm, but there’s a lot less mental work, Pokey LaFarge says.
Pokey LaFarge
In 2022, while working as a farm laborer in Maine, LaFarge experienced another healing. This period of his life, which began when he followed his then-girlfriend, now wife, from California to New England, inspired the songs on “Rhumba Country.”
“It was the end of 2021, going into 2022,” he recalled. “Musicians were the last people to go back to work (after the COVID-19 pandemic). I haven’t been able to tour yet. So, I said, “I have to do something to keep myself busy. Maybe this is an opportunity to work on something new. That’s how it all happened.”
Agriculture was not just something new. Temporarily sidestepping music, LaFarge found farm life to be deep, artistic, overwhelming, essential work.
“I realized that farming and gardening are art forms,” he said. “A farmer paints the soil with seeds. The seeds grow and there are countless colors at your disposal. Not only that, but you can smell it and taste it. It’s inspiring.”
Being a musician is similar in some ways to working on a farm, but there’s a lot less mental work, LaFarge said.
“It’s not that tough on the mind,” he said. “The mind is stilled. It’s a practical application, the complete opposite of the musician’s creative process, which seems like you’re never off the clock because the life you’re living goes into songwriting.”
LaFarge’s upbeat and stylistically wide-ranging “Rhumba Country” songs feature his faith- and farm-inspired positivity. He’s still a secular musician, but spiritual content informs songs like “Run Run Run,” “You Make My Garden Grow” and the scripture-quoted “It’s Not Over.”
“I haven’t been called to be a gospel singer yet, but there are many ways to spin it,” he said. “As an artist, everything you think, everything you say and do, and perhaps everything that is said and done to you can influence the music you create.”
LaFarge’s latest two albums — Rhumba Country and 2021’s In the Blossom of Their Shade — are the most positive of an 11-album career that includes his 2013 self-titled release through rock star Jack White’s label , Third Man Records. Nowadays, he doesn’t sing some of his older material because he now sees it as a glorification of destructive hedonism.
“Every album is special, but for the last five or six years I’ve been operating from a completely different space,” he said. “Sending positive messages is important to me.”
Pokey LaFarge and Tailspins
21:00 Saturday
Chelsea’s Live, 1010 Nicholson Drive
$25
chelseaslive.com and pokeylafarge.net