There’s a certain old-timey feel to Pokey LaFarge’s music which suggests old Hollywood imagery. But it wasn’t until the songwriter’s eighth studio album, Rock Bottom Rhapsody, that this idea reached its full potential.
“Bluebird” is the name of the jaunty track LaFarge is sharing today, which fits neatly in the catalog of swinging singles he’s been putting out since 2006. “I wanted to write a song that I could see people dancing to at Pacific Parc in Amsterdam,” he shares of the track. “A place where I’ve gone many times with friends to listen and drink and dance to 45’s until dawn.”
Instead, for the Horatio Baltz–directed video, LaFarge dips into Golden Age Hollywood’s infatuation with gangster flicks, starring as a ruthless gangster prior to taking what he describes as a “dark, sad, villainous role” in his feature film debut in the forthcoming Jake Gyllenhaal co-produced Netflix film The Devil All the Time. Preview LaFarge’s acting chops in the clip below.
Rock Bottom Rhapsody is out April 10 via New West—pre-order it here.
