Ghost Stories & Guitar Strings: The Shakey Graves Saga Continues at Rifflandia
FACT: Shakey Graves (real name Alejandro Rose-Garcia) is the epitome of troubadour cool. And that’s not just because of the legend of how he supposedly got his name (it involves the ‘spooky wagon’ ramblings of a stranger high on LSD at Old Settler’s Music Festival way back in 2007…possibly the coolest stage name origin story), or because he has an acting credit in the cultural behemoth that is Spy Kids. Oh no, put it down to his patchwork past hopping from New York open mics to freak-folk in LA, to community building via Shakey Graves Days in Austin (more on that later), not to mention his gifts as a natural-born storyteller.
From his humble beginnings as a one man band with a kick drum made from an old Samsonite, the Austin TX native went on to combine boho-bluesy folk, americana and grown-up indie-pop, to create a textured sound all his own. Debut album Roll the Bones, a 2011 slice of unpolished, raw Americana, was followed up by 2014’s breakout record And The War Came, a genre-hopping collection that became the songbird of the mid-teens.
Back in the skinny-jean wielding days of 2014, any hipster worth their smoked salt knew of this backwoods jongleur. ‘Dearly Departed’, his & Esme Patterson’s (of Paper Bird) co-written country gem, was an ever-present leviathan, appearing on playlists, mix tapes and radio sessions from coast to coast. Even now this song has racked up 125 million streams on Spotify alone. I saw him take to the stage back in the heady days of Sasquatch (RIP), clad in battered jeans and a grubby white vest, breathing life into the sun-baked slopes of the Gorge as effortlessly as he would a harmonica.
February 9 was declared Shakey Graves Day back in 2012 by then Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell. Now in its 13th year and covering 4 days, the multi-day event features cheap ticket live shows and the chance to download any of the Shakey Graves back catalogue, including rarities, deep-cuts and exclusives, from Bandcamp using a name-your-price model, with a portion of proceeds going to various Austin-based charities and nonprofits. “It’s not about me,” Garcia maintains, ”it’s appreciation for the people who love my music.” The relationship is symbiotic, with his dedication to his fan base being stuff of legend. From curating scavenger hunts to hand-making individual gift bags, Garcia is rooted in community values and truly remains an artist of, and for, the people.
The Shakey Graves wagon rolls into town and onto the Rifflandia lineup hot off his 10th anniversary tour of When The War Came (10 years!). It’s not his first time out to the coast, having headlined the much missed Otalith Music Festival back in 2016. But the passage of time marches ever on, and this West Coast return will see a more ambitious-sounding artist. Sure, some of the earlier edges may have been sanded down, but his creativity and genre-defiance remains unmatched.
His latest full length album, 2023’s Movie of the Week is a musical universe upon itself. Borne of a collaborative movie project with a director that ultimately floundered, Garica took those lemons and turned them into an infinite film score. “I started recording music along to footage, but when I started to turn a lot of it in, I realized that the director and I did not see the movie in the same way,” Rose-Garcia said in a statement. “But I made all this really cool stuff and felt really invigorated...we came up with this way to record where we went through them like themes. I came up with the plot of an imaginary movie. And we started to treat it like a soundtrack to a movie.” There ended up being hundreds of hours of unused material, so he created a website where you type in a genre and the site will fire out a fresh mix of b-sides, remixes and demos, effectively creating a unique version of the album. Oh, and then he casually launched a creative call to arms in the form of Shakey Graves Film Festival, because why not?
Now a husband and a father, the wandering minstrel days of Shakey Graves may look a little different, but he remains an endlessly engaging performer. A charming Rifflandia must-see.
– Rae Porter. Part-time writer, full-time purveyor of good times. With a Rifflandia attendance going back to 2013, Rae's seen a few iterations of the festival - from both sides of the scrimmed fence - and has loved every single one of them.