P.G. Six

P.G. Six is Pat Gubler and he's got a record forthcoming on Drag City. I received it in the US Post just a few days ago. In fact a few hours before I left for a weekend in the Sierra Foothills. I brough the CD with me knowing nothing about it, expecting nothing of it. I do, however, have a basic admiration for the Drag City label and faith that they wouldn't sign a band or a person that sucked ass. My faith is well placed.

P.G. Six is often clumped into the "freak folk" scene. I suppose that category includes everyone from Devandra Branhead to Akron/Family and just about everything else that can be squeezed into the ever expanding Hefty bag that "freak folk" now implies. I mean, "Freak Folk"? Fuck. Gotta come up with something better. P.G. Six's forthcoming record Slightly Sorry certainly has a folk bent. But it's a classic-rock folk bent, it sounds dated and I mean that in a good way. It sounds wise, worldly, filled with something important, something deserving of your attention. Gubler is a trained musician but his music doesn't sound obsessive or overly polished, instead it's filled with risk taking and experimentation.

What's it sound like? It sounds like Gordon Lightfoot channeled by Will Oldham. It sounds like early Neil Young being chaffeured around 1960's era Haight Ashbury by Conor Oberst with Steve Earle acting as security. It's willow thin then suddenly fat with organ fills. It's a lonely voice then suddenly a chorus of harmony.

I had spent the better part of a long car ride listening to Slightly Sorry trying to figure it out. Playing detective with its notes, until I finally gave up and just listened. When we arrived in the little town of Dorrington the snow started to fall. The first real snow of winter, a blessing in a town starving for skiers to trail their dollars through the small bars and restaurants like tin cans behind a wedding motorcade. It had been years since last I watched snow falling through the yellow cone of a streetlight, dust in a sunbeam, bugs after the sweet white light, silence in all that motion.

from Slightly Sorry:

Bless These Blues

Lots more of his music here