Pokey LaFarge is back and in Bangalow

THE riverboat chic rock-n-roller Pokey LaFarge is back in Australia next month and bringing his latest album to an Eltham Pub off-site show at Bangalow A&I Hall.

The singer, songwriter, guitarist, recording artist, poet and actor has spent over a decade travelling and performing his music around the globe.

The new disc, Rhumba Country, serves up flavours of mambo, Tropicalia, rocksteady, and mid-century American rock-and-roll with LaFarge’s band, in a new show after his six-year absence from our shores.

LaFarge is a traveller. After years of crisscrossing North America, he found himself in Mid-Coast Maine, where he experienced a major life change.

From working 12-hour days on a local farm, a creative burst was born, which the artist said redefined his sense of purpose.

“There was a time when I glorified sadness because I lost sight of who I was, but now I understand that creating and expressing joy is my gift, and gifts are meant to be shared,” LaFarge said.

“I’d be pushing a plough or scattering seeds, and the songs would just come to me.

“It was tremendously inspirational and made me realise that apart from singing, farming is perhaps the oldest human art form.

“I’m most purely a rambler. I’m travelling the world all the time, and my songs have been directly influenced by my travels.

“You’re liable to hear something in my songs that sounds like traditional jazz; next thing you know, you might be hearing something that sounds like Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline mixed with the chanson singers of France or a waltz mixed with cumbia or soul mixed with swing.”

Rhumba Country is an invitation to celebrate life and love.

“The songs that naturally come to me are upbeat and make you wanna dance or at least bop your head – they’re all very colourful,” he said.

“I used to think of my music in dark blue, but now I see it in technicolour.

“With me, lyrics are the most important thing, but when it comes to music, it’s just as much about the groove – something about the groove that makes me want to move, you know?

“There’s always a little bit of swing to it, something that’s got a bounce. I mean, people have been swinging for hundreds of years.”

LaFarge plays Bangalow on May 14. For tickets, visit moshtix.com.au/v2/event/pokey-lafarge-his-band-with-guests/176853 .