A few years back I was blown away by Elvis Perkins on one of his first ever shows in England with the band that later became known as Dearland. The individual performances and overall song structures blew me away and inspired one of the first posts on this blog.
Diamond Doves for to all intents and purpose is Elvis Perkins in Dearland minus Mr Perkins himself. I already had a lot of respect for these guys following that live appearance and the superb ‘Ash Wednesday’ album. Furthermore, they began popping up on all sorts of releases by the likes of My Morning Jacket, Bon Iver, Dr. Dog, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and Okkervil River.
This respect was cemented when I recieved their debut recordings as Diamond Doves. The tracks possess an endearing warmth on that invites you in, makes you a nice cup of tea, places you under the duvet and fluffs up your pillows.
This initial offering shows a lot of promise and I eagerly await new songs. Meanwhile they are on tour with The Felice Brothers this spring, and play a residency in Brooklyn throughout March. Definately ones to keep an eye on.
Portland’s Nick Jaina released ‘A Bird In The Opera House’ last month. The album is a bit of a departure from his past work and relies much more on the electric guitar to drive its melodies.
Coming across like a bi-polar Elvis Perkins; the album highlights the abundance of talent and on displaywhilst building on a relentless tour schedule that has seemingly brought him and his alt-folk ensemble to every corner of the USA.
If you are stateside check out his upcoming dates to see when, not if, his infamous live show is storming into your town.
‘A Bird In The Opera House’ is available now from Hush Records.
Some of the greatest concert, album as well as movies (but that is for another blog) experiences come when the artist blows you away when you had no idea what to expect. I could name a few albums i picked out without hearing a single note which left me open mouthed when i finally played them at home. Likewise there have been a load of artists that were anonymous when they hit the stage and became heroes as they stepped off.
Elvis Perkins won me over exactly like this. With a sole spotlight shining bright he faced the audience and without saying a word began strumming the chords for ‘While You Were Sleeping‘. One by one the lights lit up as his band introduced drums, double bass and trumpet sowing the seeds to this wonderful song. What followed was a triumphant performance where brief joyous moments like ‘May Day!” were interjected by a reflective sadness producing mass goose bumps in the audience.
A simple online search will reveal that Elvis lost both parents in separate yet equally tragic circumstances and the occasional melancholy that creeps into his music must stem from these events. His debut album Ash Wednesday is wonderfully sparse and laced with subtle chord progressions and hazy musings. Combining a Leonard Cohen-esque lyrical dark side and a less-is-more Dylan structuring approach here is a man playing passionate folk-rock in the 21st century and making it sound very relevant. By the time he stepped off stage the merch stand had sold out of his CDs and an other audience was definitely won over.
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A few years back I was blown away by Elvis Perkins on one of his first ever shows in England with the band that later became known as Dearland. The individual performances and overall song structures blew me away and inspired one of the first posts on this blog.
