Paul K - Clippings


CMJ 'Jackpot' June 1992 PAUL K The Big Nowhere (SilenZ, P.O. Box 55559, 1007 NB Amsterdam, Netherlands/3l-20-662-2735)—After an upswell of Paul K interest a few years ago, touched off by his Patriot LP and a faithful local following in Lexington, KY, all mention of the man inexplicably dissipated, and we figured he'd given up and signed on at his dad's insurance firm or something. The liner notes allude to a somewhat more colorful hiatus involving heroin addiction and squatting, and if that’s not the ticket to a straight and true grasp of the stark, bleeding, interstate-pocked soul of America, then it’s at least a vicarious, sobering listen for those who can’t get the vacation time to go through it themselves. Mostly accompanying himself on a guitar that flows with weatherworn, battered ambience, Paul K’s songs are spare and clean, matching somewhat bleak lyrics strewn with nowheresville imagery to a comfortably craggy voice and soulful, reassuring strums. Like Howe Gelb of Giant Sand, K holds great respect for the country and roots tenets, but doesn’t go about masking his own cleverness for the sake of accuracy. For a series of finely detailed, unfrilled vignettes about social injustice and ordinary, dusty little places and lives, "Robespierre," "Too Many Yakking Passengers," "Needle Pork" and "Thousand Dollar Wedding" earn a niche above the clamorings of the less genuine, vastly more common breed of singer-songwriter. —Deborah Orr