Any description of lefty Unplugged is going to be unusual as your first measure is probably that he is a folk singer. He plays an acoustic guitar and he sings so, ok, he must be a folk singer. But folk singers usually don't have anything close to lefty Unplugged's guitar skills and their poetry often takes a more limited form. (This is not to slam folk music as some of it is magical. Like practically any other form of music, a lot of it sucks.)
Folk singers or at least the ones who were at Monterey in 1967 when Bob Dylan played, would burn lefty at the stake for all the electronics he uses. (That's what they wanted to do with Dylan. They were furious with him for playing electric.) The electronics don't mean lefty uses a lot of wah-wah or plays a guitar with his teeth although I do confess it would be an interesting thing to see. Lefty uses his electronics with extraordinary taste and you will never even know he is doing it unless you listen very carefully.
In describing lefty, I'm going with the quintessential English gentleman. Maybe you think, oh no, he's just some guy in a t-shirt and yellow night-time slippers, what kind of gentleman is that. But ... let's review. So-called English gentlemen gather together to ride horses so they can find a little fox and kill it. Lefty gathers animals in his backyard so he can feed them. Any questions on who is really the gentleman.
Lefty's songs are sometimes like a Diane Keaton movie and there's a cliche image of her looking out of a window as raindrops drip down it as this gives a feeling of such huge despair. The image is a cliche but the sensation is not as there are times in life when it gets like that. Lefty's ability to identify those moments and sing of them is extraordinary and a big part of the intrigue is that he will tell you what else you can see in the image. There are raindrops rolling your life down the window but there's also a half-eaten sandwich on the table, a little whistle coming from the kettle, and all of the things that are part of this image and take it beyond cliche.
None of this is to say Lefty's music is depressing as that isn't my point. He knows joy, he knows life ... and he damn sure does not kill any little foxes.
Folk singers or at least the ones who were at Monterey in 1967 when Bob Dylan played, would burn lefty at the stake for all the electronics he uses. (That's what they wanted to do with Dylan. They were furious with him for playing electric.) The electronics don't mean lefty uses a lot of wah-wah or plays a guitar with his teeth although I do confess it would be an interesting thing to see. Lefty uses his electronics with extraordinary taste and you will never even know he is doing it unless you listen very carefully.
In describing lefty, I'm going with the quintessential English gentleman. Maybe you think, oh no, he's just some guy in a t-shirt and yellow night-time slippers, what kind of gentleman is that. But ... let's review. So-called English gentlemen gather together to ride horses so they can find a little fox and kill it. Lefty gathers animals in his backyard so he can feed them. Any questions on who is really the gentleman.
Lefty's songs are sometimes like a Diane Keaton movie and there's a cliche image of her looking out of a window as raindrops drip down it as this gives a feeling of such huge despair. The image is a cliche but the sensation is not as there are times in life when it gets like that. Lefty's ability to identify those moments and sing of them is extraordinary and a big part of the intrigue is that he will tell you what else you can see in the image. There are raindrops rolling your life down the window but there's also a half-eaten sandwich on the table, a little whistle coming from the kettle, and all of the things that are part of this image and take it beyond cliche.
None of this is to say Lefty's music is depressing as that isn't my point. He knows joy, he knows life ... and he damn sure does not kill any little foxes.
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