Music

From Texas to Wisconsin

folkster moved from Texas to Wis. to Minn.

Ted Waldbillig |

 
Dude can rock an adirondack chair.

Being born in the same hospital as Bob Dylan can cast a shadow on a singer/songwriter, especially one who writes about gypsies and sleeping outside. That’s Luke Redfield, a well-traveled folkie with a red-brown beard. Having zigzagged US highways, his songs chase that mythic thread sewing this country together. Luke’s catalog includes two LPs and an EP, and he’s played an incredible number of shows in the U.S. and Europe. “Slow and steady wins the race,” says Redfield of his progress. Moving from Austin, TX to Fall Creek (briefly), and recently back to Minneapolis, Luke is well on his way to becoming a regional fixture. Ephemeral Eon, his latest disc, is a stack of folk songs recorded and produced in Wisconsin and Texas. With quite a talented gang siding him in the studio (JT Bates, Chris Bates, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Haley Bonar, and Alex Ramsey), Luke plays sweet Americana that leans on his working man’s tenor. In many of his newer songs on Ephemeral Eon, Luke explores the human condition, yet his tone remains personal – a paradox that spears our postmodern ironies. Toward the end of the disc, You Are Not Your Body builds and builds into a chant – gleaming strings coming out of the little ditty it was when it started – as if to say that it’s all actually much larger.

Luke Redfield • March 18 • Acoustic Café, 505 S Barstow St., Eau Claire • 7pm • FREE • lukeredfield.com