JIMMY LAFAVE – The Night Tribe (Music Road Records MRR CD023)

The-Night-TribeHis first release since resurfacing in 2012 with Depending On The Distance after a five year absence finds the Oklahoma-Texas singer-songwriter’s mellow nasal drawl in fine form for an album of which all but two numbers are self-penned. The title refers not just to the name of his band (which features a six piece string section, harp included), but also, he says, the ‘after hours’ people in whom he finds inspiration for his music.

Well, them and God. Spotlighting Radoslav Lorkovic on organ, the album opens with ‘The Beauty Of You’, a soulful Van-styled number celebrating pantheism, though it works equally as a love song. And there’s certainly a fair few of those here, musically ranging from the guitar jangling, cascading chords of the Pettyesque ‘Maybe’ and the bluesy Texan barroom groove of ‘Trying To Get Back To You’ to the tender apology of ‘Smile’. Not all matters of the heart end well, with both dreamy ballad Island and the catchy mid-tempo country rock ‘Never Came Back to Memphis’ with its female gospel backing singers talking of being left alone while the soulful ‘It’s Not On Me’ sees him telling his latest flame to keep on driving out of his life “because I’m not in love now and I cannot lie.”

The sometimes fleeting nature of relationships and letting those close go to seek their destiny (“in the click of a photograph, it all passes way too fast and when your part is cast there’s no time to rehearse”) provides the heart of the slow fellow-travellers soul-blues ‘The Roads Of The Earth’, whereas there’s an aching sense of loss, here through death, to the gorgeous, strings and piano-backed Kelcy Warren co-write ballad, ‘Talk To An Angel’.

Although the liner notes mention the Kerouac characters that populate his songs, they actually only surface on two here. They are, however, pretty potent; the throaty guitar chugging swamp blues ‘Dust Bowl Okies’ and the title track itself, a suitably after hours musician’s blues about living in “the neon glow of perpetual sin” and “standing at the crossroads with your amp turned to ten.”

As mentioned, there’s also two covers included, both nods to his long-standing influences. The first is a reflective and resigned gospel-stained version of Neil Young’s ‘Journey Through The Past’ and the other a now obligatory Dylan nugget, this time round ‘Queen Jane Approximately’ from Highway 61 Revisited, opening with just stripped back acoustic and Lorkovic’s organ behind LaFave’s weary voice before plugging in the electric guitar and building to an impassioned swelling finale of string and backing vocals. Musically and stylistically, there’s nothing here that LaFave hasn’t been doing since his first self–produced tape, Highway Angels…Full Moon Rain, in 1988. But when you find something that works that well, why on earth would you want to bend it into a different shape?

Mike Davies

Artist’s website: https://redhouserecords.com/artists/jimmy-lafave/

‘The Beauty Of You’ – official video:


We all give our spare time to run folking.com. Our aim has always been to keep folking a free service for our visitors, artists, PR agencies and tour promoters. If you wish help out and donate something (running costs currently funded by Paul Miles), please click the PayPal link below to send us a small one off payment or a monthly contribution.