“Rip Van Winkle Eyes” is an appropriate opening song for Kirk McFarlin’s self-titled CD. The drummer-multi-instrumentalist disappeared from music somewhere near the end of the last century and reemerged this month with his first solo project. McFarlin was a member of a pair of Milwaukee bands with recording contracts, Ecoteur and Carnival Strippers, and recorded and toured with Victor DeLorenzo. “My luck was always to be in bands signed to companies on the verge of bankruptcy,” he says.
McFarlin worked on his album in bits and pieces since 1997, but only completed it within the last year when producer Mike Hoffmann took charge of the sessions. “Mike has the uncanny sensibility for cutting things away,” McFarlin says. “He knows when to move on.”
Hoffman’s production endows the songs with aural depth and intrigue. The sensibility at work in the writing and arrangements suggest the expansiveness of 1960s rock without replicating any particular band or genre. “I don’t consciously try to do anything. I write what comes out,” McFarlin says while acknowledging the influence of music he heard on AM radio as a kid in the ’60s. “I’m not sure if this album fits anywhere on any radio format today. It’s not pop,” he insists, despite his ear for melody. “I don’t know what to call it.”
McFarlin’s CD release show is scheduled for Saturday, March 26 at 8 p.m. at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn. He will perform largely as a soloist with guitars, effects and backing tracks.
