Shreveport-by-way-of-Chicago musician Justin Jahnke has a love of southern rock and the landscape which inspires it – even if he currently finds himself far from his hometown. His music is a sly reinterpretation and melding of southern folk, delta blues, and brass-y pop instincts. Growing up playing guitar in various rock band after having learned to sing in a travelling Episcopalian boys choir, his love of music — and the details behind its creation — only grew, and he eventually sold his belongings and moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where he met bassist Mike Meske and keyboardist Rusty “LaRue” Lee. They released a handful of EP’s and LP’s before disbanding, and Jahnke found himself heading north once again.
Settling in Chicago, he began the process of writing and recording the songs which would form the basis of Lamplighter, his upcoming album under the Midnite On Pearl Beach moniker. Due out January 14th, the album finds Jahnke flitting between Louisiana funk rhythms, energetic brass arrangements, and quirky folk introspection. It’s an amalgamation of his influences, but it isn’t simply a retread of his music inspirations. It finds the singer delving deeply through his memories and reconstructing a musical nostalgia that seems effortlessly drawn from his life. Co-produced by Jake Westermann, whose credits include albums from Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Iron and Wine, Gomez, and Margot and the Nuclear So Sos, Lamplighter is an anthology of Jahnke’s life — as seen through a series of musical flashbacks.
On his latest single, the brash and brass-y “One Foot Left,” he threads chirping guitars, a driving percussive rhythm, kinetic horns, and his own expressive voice into a mishmash of a handful of genres, which oddly enough still manages to sound uncluttered despite its density. Surprisingly elegant and elegiac, the track sounds as though you might hear it come pouring out from some bar in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, but there is also a momentary reservedness to it, a pensiveness that holds itself in check until the brass swings through and busts the song wide open. Carried along by the heft of Jahnke’s vocals and the sheer exuberance of the music, you really don’t have any choice but to simply let go and become cocooned by the buoyant sounds. You’ll be glad you did.
Beats Per Minute is pleased to premiere the latest single, “One Foot Left,” from Midnite On Pearl Beach’s upcoming album, Lamplighter.
