Rating: NNN
When it comes to music, guitar-slinging songster Luke Doucet and his band are awesomely strong on the folk-rock front, exploring everything from mambo to lonesome western twang, with a feeling of melancholia running throughout. Vocally, however, Doucet often sounds like a children’s entertainer. His singing is bright, clear and chipper, even when he’s describing floating corpses. The lyrics can also border on silly, but that might be done in a deliberate They Might Be Giants way. The odd tone doesn’t always work, but he takes a welcome break from it on occasion, as with the truly fine cover of Tom Waits’s Gun Street Girl, featuring Melissa McClelland on vocals.
Luke Doucet swings into the Horseshoe Friday (October 1).