Mike Doughty preview

Mike Doughty Band
Vic Theatre, Chicago
Thursday, March 20, 2008

It can be really difficult for a singer-songwriter to make enough of a living to pay the bills, much less make music that stands out from the crowd. Fortunately for Mike Doughty, he has been able to do both. Of course it doesn’t hurt that he used to front the semi-successful ’90s alt-rock act Soul Coughing. And it didn’t hurt to make such a fan out of “the” Dave Matthews that he signed Doughty to his own record label (and lent his voice to a track or two).

But what really ended up setting Doughty apart from the rest is his powerful penchant for writing such simple yet infectious songs, songs that span from intimate, to humorous, to laid-back, to meaningful. His latest LP, Golden Delicious (ATO), is a delicious sample of all of these. The album kicks off with the politically-charged “Fort Hood” (which includes Doughty citing The Fifth Dimension: “Let the sun shine”) and moves through tracks like the almost-danceable “I Just Want The Girl In The Blue Dress To Keep Dancing,” to the touching “I Got The Drop On You,” to his upbeat ode to what parents named a lot of ’80s babies in “27 Jennifers,” to the just plain goofy chorus of “More Bacon Than The Pan Can Handle.”

Doughty’s latest effort finds him incorporating more musicians and instruments, straying from his standard loner-on-an-acoustic-guitar approach, but he knows exactly how to avoid over-doing it. His low, raw, gutsy vocals need no studio enhancement, which means his live shows never fail to deliver. And since his quirky humor is as much a trademark of his shows as the audience-friendly songs, they’re always highly satisfying.

All in all, it’s certainly not a bad way to pay the bills.

Panderers open.

— Carter Moss

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly