Pokey LaFarge’s new album – Rhumba Country, is a constant sway of tropical rhythms and the rhumba beat from which the album gets its title. But it doesn’t stop there; it also includes hints of reggae, country, and soul. Packed into 10 songs, Rhumba Country is a fun listen that will most certainly bring a smile to your face and a tap to your toes.
The Illinois singer found himself near the coast of Maine a few years back, in the midst of a major life change – working long days on a local farm. Rhumba Country materialized from that time and those hours, entrenched deep in working the farm.
“I’d be pushing a plow or scattering seeds, and the songs would just come to me,” LaFarge recalls. “It was tremendously inspirational and made me realize that apart from singing, farming is perhaps the oldest human art form.”
Pokey LaFarge plays guitar on most tracks, acoustic and electric, and is backed up by a collection of other musicians on mellotron, tenor, and baritone saxophones, electric bass, drums, percussion, several guitars, and harmony vocalists. This allows LaFarge to take and stay center stage, focusing on his strong vocals.
“Everything you are as a person comes out in your music. You don’t know where it’s coming from. But people can feel it, especially your voice. The voice is perhaps the rawest expression of one’s soul. I used to think of my music in dark blue, but now I see it in technicolor,” says LaFarge.
I’m not sure when the first pool party of the year happens, but Rhumba Country will be waiting in the queue.
– @meanwhile_in_music
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