Pokey LaFarge at the Codfish Hollow Barn -- July 23.
Thursday, July 23, 8 p.m.
Codfish Hollow Barn, 5013 288th Avenue, Maquoketa IA
Performing blues, folk, country, and Americana music that, according to NPR, “evokes the old-timey spirit of a thousand crackling 78 RPM records” Midwestern singer/songwriter Pokey LaFarge headlines a July 23 concert at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, the artist's 2024 release Rhumba Country hailed by No Depression as a "stirring, deceptively fraught" album that "presents vivid vignettes of restless hearts gripped by desire and loneliness, and yearning for higher ground."
A Bloomington, Illinois, native currently based in St. Louis, LaFarge developed an early interest in American literature and history, as well as roots music of the 20th Century. By his teens, he was combining his passions into his own music, accompanying himself on guitar, mandolin, and banjo. After graduating from high school, LaFarge adopted an itinerant lifestyle – as well as the nickname Pokey – and traveled around the United States, often performing on street corners. LaFarge also crossed paths with a handful of like-minded musicians and he was soon touring with his own combo The South City Three, featuring Adam Hoskins on guitar, Joey Glynn on standup bass, and Ryan Koenig on harmonica, washboard, and percussion.
In 2006, LaFarge released his self-produced debut album Marmalade, and after several additional independent releases, Jack White invited LaFarge's trio to accompany him on the song “I Guess I Should Go to Sleep” from White's 2012 album Blunderbuss. LaFarge and his band also opened several dates on White's subsequent tour, and in 2013, White signed LaFarge to his own Third Man Records label, which released his eponymous debut album. The respected roots-music label Rounder Records, meanwhile, released LaFarge's 2015 Something in the Water as well as 2017's Manic Revelations, an album that found its artist drawing inspiration from 1960s soul music. The album also inspired PopMatters to call Magic Revelations “what happens when the muse hits and the creative juices start flowing as if by magic," with Paste magazine deeming it “all sass and swagger, with plenty of juke-jump energy to spare.”
Since then, LaFarge also appeared in the 2020 Netflix movie The Devil All the Time and contributed to its soundtrack, and the musician released Rock Bottom Rhapsody in 2020 and In the Blossom of Their Shade two years afterward. The former led The Arts Fuse to state that "We see the artist’s personal vulnerability like never before," and the latter, according to American Songwriter. "simulates the amiable ambiance of a tropical stroll along sunny shores." The artist is currently touring in support of his latest album Travelin’ with Pokey LaFarge: Voice and Guitar Vol. I , released on Boxer Boy Records this past January.
Pokey LaFarge headlines his Maquoketa engagement on July 23 alongside the Cedar County Cobras, and more information on the 8 p.m. concert event is available by visiting CodfishHollowBarnstormers.com.
