Americana singer-songwriter Joe Purdy makes Waco stop
Joe Purdy
With Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies
Performance: 7 p.m. Sunday at Cinema, 921 Lake Air Drive
Tickets: $15
Americana singer-songwriter Joe Purdy is no technophobe, with much of his success stemming from television exposure and digital downloads, but found going Old School — analog — on his last album “Eagle Rock Fire” a revelation.
“Over the last 13 records I’ve done, this one feels really alive,” said the Arkansas native, speaking by phone from his Los Angeles home.
For a musician who believes the song is supreme and there shouldn’t be a distance between performer and audience, that’s no surprise. “Eagle Rock Fire,” recorded analog with no overdubs or sweetening, returned Purdy to the essence of music-making.
“We got back to making music with our ears, as God intended,” he said. “It sounds better, for one thing, and it makes you sit down (together) in a room and record it.”
It also cured a recording perfectionist of a tendency to fiddle forever with a song, tweaking it digitally for limited improvements. Recording with the idea of getting it right the first time and with the whole band together focuses the mind, but in a good way, he noted.
“You have to get used to your own voice. And if you want to sound better, you have to get better,” he said.
The challenge of recording analog with its narrow margin of error made Purdy and his musicians rise to the occasion. “When that tape turns on, the way people step their game up is incredible,” he said.
Waco audiences will get the chance to hear Purdy and his ban Sunday when they play at Waco’s Cinema nightclub. Waco’s on his map, thanks to drummer and good friend Brian Wright, a Lorena native, who will open Sunday’s show.
“I played Waco a few years ago — the Frontier Lounge with Brian Wright. We had a big ol’ time,” he said. “He’s the best songwriter I know. . . . I can’t go on the road without writing extra songs together . . . It’s a Willie and Waylon type of thing.”
Playing with masters
Purdy’s songwriting, learned in part from playing with, and observing, such sterling practitioners of the craft as Kris Kristofferson and Steve Earle, has built him a considerable reputation in Americana music circles. The title song of his current release, in fact, comes from a California wildfire that threatened the area where Purdy lives, but rather than evacuating his home when authorities urged, Purdy wrote a song about it.
If Purdy isn’t on country music charts often, he’s definitely on television’s radar with songs appearing on such series as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “House” and “Lost” as well as commercials for such clients as Kia and some major league baseball games when his “Can’t Get It Right Today” plays as a pitcher leaves.
He’s far from a stranger to iTunes either: Since 2001 his songs have translated into 1 million downloads.
The month ahead finds Purdy playing the Americana Music Festival in Nashville, but with one record project behind him, he’s already itching for another.
“I’d like to get another record under my belt, to be honest,” he said. “I’ve got the songs for it.”