[rating=3.00]
After releasing a couple solo albums, Middle of Everywhere is Pokey LaFarge’s second recording with the South City Three, yielding another fine interpretation of old time tunes. Working the white side of a black minstrel tradition made popular by many performers in the first part of the last century, Pokey and the band ably romp through 13 self-penned compositions. Channeling the spirit of earlier artists such as Cliff Edwards, Martin, Bogen, and Armstrong, Cephas and Wiggins, and Bo Carter’s Mississippi Sheiks, they follow a path blazed in the 60’s by another trio of white Midwestern boys: “Spider” John Koerner, Dave “Snaker” Ray, and Tony Glover.
Keeping faithful to the limitations of early recoding techniques, the songs mainly fall in the two and a half to four minute range, opening verse, solos in the middle, ending verse to sum up the theme. Songs include the predictable topics concerning women, lost love, and drinking. “Coffee Pot Blues”, “Weedwacker Rag”, “Mississippi Girl”, “Drinkin’ Whiskey Tonight”, and “Keep Your Hands Off My Gal” feature good walking acoustic bass lines, weaving guitar lines, with fills from harmonica and occasional banjo, augmented at times by a horn section.
This collection should please fans of revivalist music from bands like The Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Avett Brothers, and the Squirrel Nut Zippers and hopefully serve as a light on the performers who originated the style on hundred years ago.
