Pokey LaFarge - Rhumba Country

 

140-gram gatefold LP

2024 release from the singer-songwriter and actor

After crisscrossing the nation for the last half-decade looking for a home, Pokey LaFarge found himself in Mid-Coast Maine. Upon arriving, the Illinois-born singer/songwriter/actor pursued a major life change, working 12-hour days on a local farm — a turn of events that catalyzed an extraordinary burst of creativity and redefined his sense of purpose as an artist.

Rhumba Country was initially shaped from material that emerged while LaFarge was deep in work on the farm.

"I'd be pushing a plow or scattering seeds, and the songs would just come to me," he recalls. "It was tremendously inspirational and made me realize that apart from singing, farming is perhaps the oldest human art form."

While farming, LaFarge began dreaming up a kaleidoscopic sound informed by his love of music from far-ranging eras and corners of the globe, including mambo, tropicália, rocksteady, and mid-century American rock-and-roll.

"The songs that naturally come to me are upbeat and make you wanna dance or at least bop your head — they're all very colorful," says LaFarge. "I used to think of my music in dark blue, but now I see it in technicolor." Co-produced along with Chris Seefried and Elliot Bergman and recorded in L.A., the resulting Rhumba Country is an invitation to come together to celebrate life and love.

One You, One Me

For A Night

Run Run Run

Like A Sailor

Sister Andre

So Long Chicago

It’s Not Over

Home Home Home

Made To Be Loved

You Make My Garden Grow

Be the first to write a review for this item OR just rate it