Pokey LaFarge

Fusing the sounds of the past with the energy of the present, Americana singer-songwriter Pokey LaFarge was raised on a healthy diet of blues, bluegrass, ragtime, Western swing and old-time country. Though he has consistently demonstrated a decided affinity for pre-1950s menswear, the Illinois native is by no means a throwback or a museum piece. Timelessness and refined good taste is LaFarge’s raison d’être, and his influences are as multi-hued and wide-ranging as the rhythms that buoy his starkly poetic songs — rhythms that are steeped in the very essence of jazz.

“With me, lyrics are the most important thing,” he explains. “But when it comes to music, it’s just as much about the groove — something about the groove that makes me want to move, you know? There’s always a little bit of swing to it, something that’s got a bounce. I mean, people have been swinging for hundreds of years!