elvis perkins in dearland

With a name like Elvis Perkins, you need a great introduction. And a great introduction is what I happen to be lacking at the moment. What I am going to do is give you a little history. Because somehow, that tells the story better than any introduction I could concoct.

Elvis Perkins, affectionately named after Elvis Presley by his father, began playing music at a young age. His father, actor, Anthony Perkins and mother, Berry Berenson, whose photography could be regularly seen in Life magazine, raised Elvis and his brother, Oz, in Los Angeles and New York City. In 1992 his father passed away due to complications related to AIDS. Then on September 11, 2001 his mother was aboard the catastrophic American Airlines flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles that crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. All of the sudden the sadness and the deep rooted need to write Ash Wednesday, his first album, makes complete sense. It was his mourning.

If his first album, Ash Wednesday, was the funeral, his sophomore album across the music review world has been likened to the second line in a traditional New Orleans funeral procession. This second line is the lively troupe of brass musicians who trail behind the mourners, injecting a spirit of spontaneous celebration into an otherwise somber affair. Often the parade attracts a group of followers just to enjoy the music.

While his eponymous album, still somber, has a glimmer of hope that was nonexistent in his first record. It feels like the perfect following to his much hailed solo debut, Ash Wednesday. Friday night, I had the pleasure to see Elvis Perkins in Dearland live. During that show I was able to get a small peek into what felt like a private moment among very close friends and feel the old soul quality of Elvis' voice. The Other Lives opened and both put on an incredible performance.

Elvis Perkins in Dearland - Shampoo