Spooky Folk-- not just a musical genre, but a fantastic band!

Just a quick post to share my excitement about Spooky Folk, a band playing this Thursday in Dallas at a legendary venue in Deep Ellum called Trees that just reopened. Deep Ellum is a rather mythic neighborhood-- born to industrial warehouse parents, ...supplanted by an early childhood mash-up of black and jewish businesses colliding into each other like kids and coffee tables, ...fast-forward to rebellious, teenage years dominated by punk, ...eventually rising to its commercially successful zenith as a music district in the 90's,... only to crash under its own weight due to a midlife crisis of epic proportions during the now-defunct oughts. These days, the neighborhood is sowing the seeds of what will hopefully be a full-blossomed renaissance. The origin of the name Deep Ellum is somewhat steeped in mystery, but it is thought to be an elongate, fossilized twist on deep Elm, the main street running through the neighborhood, which was far (deep) from the central goings-on in downtown Dallas at the time. But this area provided an alternative epicenter for marginalized minorities like African Americans and Eastern European Jews-- both essential parts of the burgeoning economy in Dallas at the beginning of the last century, but maligned socially by the staid, classist hierarchy of the true downtown. In 1937, Deep Ellum was famously described as the one "spot in the city that needs no daylight saving time because there is no bedtime.... The only place recorded on earth where business, religion, hoodooism, gambling and stealing goes on at the same time without friction." From what I have seen so far, that description still applies.

But what about the band, man? Recently, I went up to Denton-- my favorite place in Texas-- to see Spooky Folk, whom I had seen perform previously several months ago. Do you know how awesome it is to watch a band blossom?? Much like a neighborhood's renaissance, only faster. When I saw SF in the summer, they were good, but when I saw them in Denton a few weeks ago, they were GREAT. They are an amazing combination of rambunctious and pure, eerie and familiar, inviting and unprecedented. My two favorite things about the band are their ability to generate fervor and the entanglement of the lead singer's transcendent voice (Kaleo, above right) and the gently, uncoiling, melodies and effects of the violin (played by Petra Kelly, below). They even played one song with the recent must-have instrument of so many bands, the melodica (below). It is so cool to watch/hear them fasten down certain parts of their sound, while unleashing the sails and letting other parts fly free. The most recent show I saw them play was packed, and everyone in the room knew all the words to all the songs-- I couldn't help but imagine their delight looking out into that crowd and seeing the hoedown they had incited! Their performance at Trees will undoubtedly be another rivet in the building of this band and their sound and I can't wait to hear. If for some reason you are reading this and you live near here-- come with me-- I promise it'll be a real barn burner!

photo credits: unknown, Jason Janik, Danny Fulgencio (2x), and me