Pokey LaFarge, The Cactus Blossoms
Recommended
There was a good stretch of time—let's say, approximately, the 10 years that followed the release of the Coen brothers' O Brother Where Art Thou?—when old-timey music was the thing, and aspiring young musicians lined up to trade in their electric guitars for banjos and washboards. Mercifully, that trend finally appears to have gone the way of the post-Swingers swing music craze of the '90s, but apparently no one has bothered to tell Pokey LaFarge. Born Andrew Heissler in the green pastures of Bloomington, Illinois, Heissler's adopted pseudonym befits his ongoing commitment (now over a decade strong) to a bygone American way of life, as represented by ragtime jazz, country swing, barrelhouse blues, and ample amounts of hair pomade. No doubt, there are still a precious few clinging to their striped vests and herringbone tweed caps, and for them, Pokey LaFarge endures. SANTI ELIJAH HOLLEY