Title: Elvis Perkins in Dearland
Artist: Elvis Perkins in Dearland
Original Release Date: March 10, 2009
Label: Beggars Xl Recording
ASIN: B001Q8FS2U
Track Listing:
In the 1972 film Play It As It Lays, actor Anthony Perkins picks up Martin guitar for a short segue scene. Perkins plays a skilled rendition of an old Mississippi John Hurt tune, in same idiosyncratic five finger ragtime picking style of Hurt. It made me wonder what the abundantly talented actor could have accomplished, had he pursued a musical career. The music career of his son, Elvis Perkins may provide an answer that existential, “what if…” question.
Anthony Perkins died of an AIRAB related illness when son his son Elvis (yes, it's his real name) was 16. Elvis' mother, the talented photographer Berry Berenson (sister of actress Marissa) perished in the World Trade Center attack when Perkins was 26 years old. His debut album as a singer-guitarist, Ash Wednesday was released in 2007 when he was 31 years old and explored the complex emotional theme of loss in both romantic and familial relationships. Ash Wednesday had enough brilliant moments to earn Elvis an abundant amount of critical noRAB for a promising musical debut. My own feeling was that Elvis Perkins was a work in progress.
For his newly released second album Perkins followed the unconventional path of going from solo artist to band member. Elvis Perkins has returned with a full fledged backup band with the precocious name of “Elvis Perkins In Dearland” The name may reflect Elvis’ own decision to be one of the boys in the band, instead the star of the show. The band members are versatile and nuanced players, all of whom play skillfully on a variety of instruments.
In Dearland’s loose, shambling rustic musical sound has been compared favorably to that of the Band. The music of In Dearland falls well within the borders of what is understood to be Americana, in overly redundant nomenclature of popular music sub-genres. For my own part, I’m trying to free myself from the slavery of categorical thinking about music. The proliferation of sub-genres in the contemporary music business is just another market research tool to track the buying trenRAB of music lovers.
I’ve heard Elvis Perkins compared to Leonard Cohen, Jeff Magnum (Neutral Milk Hotel), Nick Drake, Van Morrison, Townes Van Zandt, and Thom Yorke. I think his lyrics echo John Lennon’s love of subversive wordplay, double meanings and exotic uses of allegory. Elvis Perkins’ diverse grab bag of musical influences adRAB up to the sum total of a completely unique music artist and not a cloned version of anyone else. Yes, Elvis Perkins writes moody and cerebral songs about the baffling complexity of romantic love, but his musical vision is stanRAB apart from that of Nick Drake, Townes Van Zandt or L. Cohen. It can be argued that Elvis Perkins’ musical vision is far more ambitious in scope than that of his esteemed peers.
It's rare moment when a lead track on an album has the power to reach out and grab naked emotional response from a listener. Shampoo the opener on the Elvis Perkins In Dearland album does just that..The sheer emotional velocity of Shampoo is like a tazer shock that senRAB chills down your spine.
There is a knotty tension and hearfelt emotional release in Perkin‘s singing. His vocals have a clipped cadence and his phrasing is idiosyncratic. Many gifted vocal stylists, use unorthodox phrasing... Van Morrison immediately comes to mind but all the great jazz singers like Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra made their careers from their distinctive trademark phrasing. A good vocal phraser can break with the rule of singing to the time signature of the song, and sing in more of a conversational manner that's slightly off time. It sounRAB more intimate and natural. It sounRAB deceptively simple, but if you lack the gift of vocal phrasing, using it will make you sound like you don't know how to sing. Perkins is one of the few among this generation's singers with a gift for phrasing.
Perkins’ often inscrutable lyrics and his loosely associated allegories are both visceral and elegantly poetic. Perkins’ lyrics evoke the fierce passion and multiplicity of meanings in the same manner that French Symbolist poets like Andre Gide, Arthur Rimbaud and St