This post is from Out the Other's 2009 Bonnaroo Artist Previews, where I'll be posting previews of all the musical acts playing the 2009 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Please check out and subscribe to the full site to learn more about all of this year's performers.
I'm glad that some of these previews will give me the opportunity to write about artists I've been meaning to write about recently - like Elvis Perkins in Dearland. The band's self-titled album (the follow up to Perkins' gorgeous Ash Wednesday, which I picked up immediately after seeing Elvis Perkins for the first time at the Austin City Limits Festival in 2006) came out back at the beginning of March, and while I featured it on my show at the time, I've really been listening to it a ton lately, and meaning to write about him.
I actually wrote about Elvis Perkins prior to that ACLFest, back when I did previews for the festival, and it's interesting to see how accurate I was in predicting that I would love him live. His performance with his band (they are collectively known as Elvis Perkins in Dearland, so I guess the band is Dearland?) was absolutely one of the highlights of the festival that year - it was charming, engaging, exuberant, and left me wanting to see another show immediately. Fortunately, in the nearly three years since I've had the opportunity to see Perkins and company twice in Nashville and once at this year's SXSW, though admittedly I was a little tipsy at the Austin show and didn't pay as much attention as I could have. But I was incredibly excited to see the band pop up on the Bonnaroo bill.
For those of you who haven't already heard, Elvis is the son of Anthony Perkins and photographer Berry Berenson, and while his back story is filled with a fair amount of tragedy, it's really not something that is reflected in his music. Yes, there is an undercurrent of melancholy in many of his songs, but that's pretty standard for a singer-songwriter these days, and as I said three years ago, Perkins should certainly not be viewed as a tragic musical figure. This new album, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, in particular, effectively captures the complete joy and quirky energy that you'll find in the band's live performances - complete with trombones and a marching band bass drum and crazy bandmates running around on the stage. Yet songs like "Send My Fond Regards to Lonelyville" (which features my current favorite lyric - "the Distant Mr. and the Near Mrs.") still display the quiet charm and talent for heartbreaking melody that made me fall in love with this music in the first place.
Elvis Perkins in Dearland is moving up in the ranks of my favorite releases of 2009, so by all means pick up a copy to familiarize yourself with the band before the festival. And check them out in person - chances are, you'll fall in love with them as quickly as I did.
"Hey"
"123 Goodbye"
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