In October, musician and singer-songwriter JD McPherson led an ACM@UCO masterclass at the school’s Bricktown campus with Scott Booker, ACM executive director, in conjunction with the Oklahoma Film + Music Office as part of the ACM@UCO Metro Music Series.
He takes his critically acclaimed new holiday album, Socks, on tour and performs Dec. 14 at Tower Theatre in Oklahoma City.
JD McPHERSON
w/JP Harris
Doors 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 14
Tower Theatre
425 NW 23rd St.
Oklahoma City
Tickets: $17-$20 at ticketfly.com
From NPR’s Fresh Air: A Roots And Rockabilly Holiday Concert With JD McPherson And His Band
JD McPherson never thought he’d make a Christmas album. Then, he says, “I got a bug in my ear.” He and his band perform live in studio from Socks, and McPherson talks about growing up on a cattle farm.
Read more and hear the full interview and studio performance on NPR.
From the Los Angeles Times: This year’s essential Christmas albums ranked, from ‘Shatner Claus’ to the irresistible JD McPherson
Rating: Four stars (classic)
The roots-rocking singer-songwriter from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, has put together the kind of holiday album that Louis Prima or Roy Brown would have if they’d ever gotten around to it, and thank Santa for that. It’s an utter joy, a vintage jump-blues/R&B/rockabilly workout devoid of treacly sentiment, but brimming over with child-like spirit — and just enough grown-up skepticism (“Bad Kid,” the title track) to keep things anchored in reality.
He’s written or co-written 11 originals that bring welcome fresh blood into the holiday music canon. Producing the album themselves, he and the band also zero in on a perfectly period musical and sonic vibe for this outing.
Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
From Oklahoma Gazette: ‘Socks’ rocks
McPherson said recording a Christmas album inspired him to return to the ’50s style that characterized his debut album, Signs & Signifiers.
“The language or the vocabulary of early rock ’n’ roll lends itself to that type of material,” McPherson said. “It just works better. We could’ve done a psych-rock Christmas album, but I don’t really think I would’ve wanted to listen to it afterwards.”
Read more from Oklahoma Gazette.
From Rolling Stone: How JD McPherson Blew Up Christmas Album Cliches on New ‘Socks’
Throughout Socks, McPherson’s impressive garage-rock guitarwork channels classic R&B, rock, blues and rockabilly with snappy, growling riffs (“Bad Kid”), slinky, reverb-drenched passages (“Holly, Carol, Candy & Joy”) and smooth, jazzy shuffles (“Ugly Sweater Blues”).
Along the way, he’s pitch-perfectly backed by his four-piece band of Jimmy Sutton on bass, Raynier Jacob Jacildo on keys, Jason Smay on drums, and Doug Corcoran on saxophone, steel guitar and glockenspiel.
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