Pokey LaFarge, a Kentucky-born ragtime blues revivalist with greased hair and a penchant for the kazoo, will release his new CD this Friday at Off Broadway. Here’s a recent profile.

Hokey Pokey

By Joseph Lord, The Courier-Journal (Louisville), May 21, 2008

This ramblin’ man believes that if it’s not old-timey, then it ain’t worth a damn.

Pokey LaFarge says he’s homeless. He’s not exactly destitute, he says, but he’s missing that place where most folks keep their junk and retreat at the end of each day. LaFarge spends much of his time in a Toyota Corolla, which he drives to near-daily gigs all over the Midwest.

He’s got a guitar and sometimes an upright bass player. He brings along a wardrobe of old-timey suits and bow ties that make him look like Eli Sunday of “There Will Be Blood.” Otherwise, it’s just Pokey and the road.

“I don’t really have a home; I tour a lot,” said 24-year-old LaFarge, adding that his goal is 250 shows in a year. “I’m trying to get out there as much as I can. Got to make a living somehow.”

His MySpace page says, “Have guitar, will and do travel.” It befits the singer-songwriter, whose influences come straight from the ragtime blues and folk songs of the 1920s and 1930s. LaFarge, whose next record drops in July, doesn’t bring stacks of amps and sure as heck doesn’t bring a light show. He says he may record with a band someday. For now, he will keep things spare.

LaFarge tells his story like this: At 17, he split from a “small redneck town” in southern Illinois to see the country and play music. He joined a bluegrass band and later played mandolin for the punk-inspired Virginia bluegrass outfit the Hackensaw Boys. He went solo, “fell in love with a girl,” and moved to Louisville, his home for four years. A while back, LaFarge left town to pursue his current nomadic existence.

LaFarge travels with a large collection of folk and blues compilations on CD, which he began amassing as a teenager, with songs from the likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Like the 1960s folkies who were inspired by “The Anthology of American Folk Music,” LaFarge was inspired by these pre-rock and R&B artists to begin songwriting and performing. Since then, he’s had little time for modern music.

“It makes you see America in a different way,” he said. “I think that was an important time for America, the ’20s and ’30s. That’s when we learned how to record music, when jazz was invented, when the blues were invented. It gives you an overall perspective of American music.”