The Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville grew exponentially more anxious in anticipation for his appearance. His skull & arrow logo hung tall before us, teasing us for what was to come. An old, wooden pump organ that he had just bought that day loomed at the center of the stage. A lone steer’s skull sat, perched upon an amplifier fit with an eerie light underneath. Suddenly and out of nowhere, R. Kelly’s classic anthem, “I Believe I Can Fly,” drifted out of the speakers, inflicting a delightful confusion upon the audience. Just in time for the chorus, the man appears to sing along with the crowd. This man is Shakey Graves; a lanky, scraggly-faced guitar man from Austin, Texas and he is one of the most unique and talented musicians out there today.
I’ve been a huge fan of Shakey, otherwise known as Alejandro Rose-Garcia, since I stumbled upon a video of him playing guitar and sitting on a suitcase that doubles as a drum. His sense of humor in explaining how his stage name came to be and his jaw-dropping talent of making himself a one-man band had me hooked from the beginning.
What sets Shakey Graves apart from many other artists is that it’s very clear that he relishes in doing whatever he damn well pleases. The chords he plays are almost never what one would expect as his songs very often “defy the laws of music,” as my friend Haley put it after the show. He ranges from old-timey country sounds to head-bobbing & foot-stomping “hobo folk.” While some people may be turned off at the mention of old country or folk, Shakey Graves is surely like nothing you’ve ever heard before. When he steps up to his suitcase/drum/tambourine contraption and gets to picking his guitar, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone with a pulse that doesn’t get into it.
In my opinion, the signature Shakey Graves tunes include the lone, jaunty banjo of "Unlucky Skin," the thundering sing-along "Dearly Departed," and the impossibly catchy "Late July." That being said, pick any of his six total albums to listen to and you'll embark on an odyssey consisting of Shakey's peculiar guitar picking, his raspy, windy voice, and cryptically wonderful lyrics.
This may be high praise, but in my eyes, Shakey deserves it: the world and music as a whole are both insurmountably better for the presence of Shakey Graves and his weirdly beautiful and rollicking music.
