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
. Also adding an old-school sensibility is engineer/drummer
Alex Hall
, who previously worked and played on
and at whose Chicago-based Reliable Recorders/Hi-Style Studios
recorded the album. While many of the tracks on
could have been recorded any time between 1950 and 1968, there's a timelessness and genre-bending quality to
'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
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,"
imbues each track with warm ebullience marked by his reedy, pitch-perfect harmonies. While
might still be a time-traveling rock troubadour, he seems to have found the center of his musical universe with
. ~ Matt Collar