pokey lafarge rock bottom rhapsody

​Pokey LaFarge (from the album Rock Bottom Rhapsody available on New West Records)
Bordering his recent release with short musical interludes, Pokey LaFarge creates a Rock Bottom Rhapsody. A lush string section opens up on the full-bodied title track with a gaggle of violins centering the recording with an instrumental memory in the middle of the song roster (“Rock Bottom Reprise”). The album closes out with fading applause and a lonely piano ramble (“Rock Bottom Finale”). By definition, a rhapsody is ‘a musical composition of irregular form having an improvisatory character’. The description fits the sound of Rock Bottom Rhapsody, explaining the music in a rhapsody while the character reference fits the soul wandering through the stories, the tales dogging his steps towards the rock bottom. Pokey LaFarge makes ‘regular guy’ his goal as he shares the good news of a love turnaround over a piano and bass duet in “Lucky Sometimes”. Rock Bottom Rhapsody builds walls with the regimented rhythms tramping to protect Pokey’s heart on “Fallen Angel” while it provides a DIY guide for trouble as echoes of Ricky Nelson can be heard in the sock hop sway of “Ain’t Comin’ Home”.
Trudging across the songscape of Rock Bottom Rhapsody, Pokey LaFarge marches over a slammed-shut book beat as he enters a plea for “Fuck Me Up”, his character making the song title a mantra to help him shed the skin of a ‘wholesome Midwestern boy that you wanna bring home to your momma’. The melody is a roller coaster conga line as the piano leads the notes low when Pokey LaFarge introduces a female flame bound to leave a mark in “Bluebird”. He circles back to the lovable loser star of his songs as Pokey LaFarge reaches the “End of My Rope” and finds himself locked-out of love in “Storm A’Comin’” as Rock Bottom Rhapsody watches a performer wipe off her make-up, hiding and ‘disguised as herself’ in an effort to get “Lost in the Crowd”.
Listen and buy the music of Pokey LaFarge from AMAZON
 
Please go to the Pokey LaFarge website for more information
 
 

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