Pokey LaFarge has always been pretty “old school.” His biggest musical influences have included traditional blues, country and bluegrass singers, and he’s been playing guitar and mandolin since an early age. The Americana-leaning sound he’s created is timeless, and it’s served him well over a career that’s now spanned about 20 years and a dozen albums.
Knowing all of that, it’s really interesting to talk to LaFarge and hear him talk about going for a “minimal sound” on his new album Rent Money, available Sept. 11.
“I would say that this record was a conscious effort to paint with less colors, if you will. To work with less ingredients,” said LaFarge. "To just go in there with my voice and my guitar, upright bass and drums. Then whatever was absolutely essential would be put on top of that.”
For most of the songs on Rent Money, that’s the instrumentation you’ll hear, along with some female backing singers. It’s a sound that’s on display on “The Thing,” one of the album’s first singles, which shows how LaFarge has updated his sound in a way that’s still classic. Like many of the songs on the album, he co-wrote "The Thing" with producer Elliot Bergman, and it all came together quickly.
“I was just messing with the guitar and started playing that riff, and (Bergman)’s like ‘Man, that sounds cool. Let's record that,’” said LaFarge. “A lot of the songs that we write, we'll just write them in the studio and put it down to a drum track. [They] were usually done in first, second or third takes.”
“The Thing” is, as LaFarge noted, an answer to his 2020 song “F*** Me Up.” In a roundabout way, it’s also about his faith and religious beliefs.
“(F*** Me Up) is just about, basically, complete escapism. Like, maybe a lot of people listening now can relate to whatever pain (I was) going through,” said LaFarge. “You know, if you don't heal it, it'll continually rear its head and you just keep trying to bury it with whatever ... whether it's sex drugs and rock 'n roll, or it's food, or it's work or whatever.”
“I tried all those things and actually it's what led me to my knees and to look up to Jesus. And that started in 2019,” said LaFarge. “So yeah, (“The Thing”) was an answer to that. (It was) kind of (about) the learning experience of it, if you will.”
Two other singles from Rent Money have been released so far, but LaFarge specifically mentioned “Stranger” and “Told You No” as two very personal songs from the album that he’s especially proud of.
“I'm a person who travels for a living and has traveled for over 20 years straight. I've lived in many towns and many cities, apartments and houses over my entire life,” said LaFarge when talking about “Stranger.” “No matter where I go, I don't really have a home at this point, and it's a good thing. And as a Christian, we all know quite well that we're just sojourners here, and it's just temporary.”
LaFarge describes “I Told You No” as a song about rejection and what it takes to be appreciated.
“There's one line in there that I wrote that says, ‘Breaking rules they say you should never do / But when you change the game, they will worship you.’ It's not necessarily just about me, it's about anybody,” he said.
“I mean, even speaking about some of my legends or some of the purveyors of style and the arts throughout the years, the only way they get to that legendary status is by plowing their own field, digging their own well. A perfect example is Van Gogh. Nobody could be bothered with his work, (and he died) penniless, right? And then decades later, you've got tourists winding up outside his museum for two hours in the sun to see his work. There's a lot there, a lot of layers to peel back.”
LaFarge and his band will be playing at Wooly’s on Sunday night. It’s their second show in Iowa this year, after a sold-out performance at Codfish Hollow in July. LaFarge is a Midwest native (he was born in Illinois), but he’s been living in Maine for several years, and has traveled enough to arrive at an informed opinion of Midwest hospitality.
“Midwesterners, I think you could put it to rest at this point, are the nicest people in the country, generally speaking,” he said. “Right off the bat, there's no pretense. You don't have to impress them or earn their kindness. People are oddly more present and sincere than I find them to be in other places in the United States.”
Rent Money is available on Sept. 11 at Pokey LaFarge’s website as well as on Bandcamp and streaming services. Tickets are still available for his Sept. 13 show at Wooly’s.