Pokey LaFarge returns to the fray after some time… ahem… “getting his head together in the country” working on a farm

Pokey LaFarge will return with new album “Rhumba Country” on 10th May 2024 via New West Records. The 10–song set was co-produced by Chris Seefried, Elliot Bergman, and LaFarge and was recorded in Los Angeles, CA & Chicago, IL. On ‘Rhumba Country’, he reveals his newly heightened devotion to “making music that channels pure joy.” He says, “There was a time when I glorified sadness because I lost sight of who I was, but now I understand that creating and expressing joy is my gift, and gifts are meant to be shared.” After crisscrossing the nation for the last half-decade looking for a home, LaFarge found himself in Mid-Coast Maine. Upon arriving, the Illinois-born singer/songwriter/actor pursued a major life change, working 12-hour days on a local farm—a turn of events that catalyzed an extraordinary burst of creativity and redefined his sense of purpose as an artist. As he immersed himself in the album’s creation, LaFarge began dreaming up a kaleidoscopic sound informed by his love of music from far-ranging eras and corners of the globe, including mambo, tropicalia, rocksteady, and mid-century American rock-and-roll.

“Listening to a lot of music from around the world helped simplify my approach,” he notes, naming Brazilian singer/composer Jorge Ben among his key inspirations. “The more you listen to music from around the world, you realize everybody’s got their form of country music. It goes back to why I named the album Rhumba Country in the first place: it’s poking fun at the futility of boxing everything into a few genres, ‘What is folk music? What is country or soul?’ I’ve always bucked at all those boundaries and found it much more exciting to create my own genre.”

The album’s lead single is “Sister Andre” LaFarge said, “Sister André is a love song for those who are lonely and looking and waiting to love and be loved. An encouragement to never give up the patient pursuit. It could come at any time! Encouragement, in this case, comes from Sister Andre, who inspired this song the day of her passing after 118 years of age.”