Critical Praise

BOSTON GLOBE

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Armerding's a master at bending boundaries
by Matthew Shaer

Jake Armerding, the 28-year-old Ipswich native, is an unlikely candidate for mainstream country success. In seven-odd years in Boston, his real achievement has been to bend the boundaries of the genre; his songs aren't exactly folk, but aren't bluegrass, either. Only rarely does he sing about rusty pick-up trucks or winding rural roads.

But Armerding, who played to a packed house at the Paradise Lounge on Sunday night, has never claimed to be a traditionalist. His new CD, "Walking on the World," is dizzying -- it weaves together fiddle, mandolin, and guitar; stories about Rome and nostalgia; consonant ballads about a fleece jacket; and dissonant, off-kilter rags. It was mixed, according to the liner notes, in North Carolina, mastered in New Hampshire, and engineered in Tennessee, California, and West Newton.

"This one's a country tune," Armerding explained, near the end of the hour-and-a-half set, although it wasn't, any more than the two bluegrass numbers that followed were straight bluegrass, or the encore, "Graceland," was a perfect translation of Paul Simon.

Where does music like this come from? Partly from a will to break the conventions that define country music, and mostly from a sense that all good songs are, in essence, pastiche. "Daddy was a highway, Mama was a view," Armerding offered on "Little Boy Blue (North of North Dakota)." Later, Armerding turned his eyes up to the ceiling and sang about lonesome red-eye flights. Gone was the cowboy, and in was the city kid, struck with wanderlust.

Sunday's show was the first in a 14-city tour to support the release of "Walking on the World." Set tentatively to end in New York in April, it includes only one other Massachusetts date. So the Lounge was crowded with well-wishers, who had come to see him off; Armerding stopped several times to thank them. "I appreciate it, I really do," he said, waving. Then, as he brought his backing band crashing through "Graceland," he smiled and executed a rock star stomp -- legs splayed, one hand skyward -- that would have made Elvis Presley proud.

BOSTON GLOBE
"The most gifted and promising songwriter to emerge from the Boston folk scene in years."

CLEVELAND COUNTRY MAGAZINE
Armerding straddles a curious fine line between 'new folk' singer/songwriter, contemporary bluegrass, and a 'swinging' country-pop style that appears wholly organic both in its approach and execution. That he occupies each with such self-assurance and ease is a testament to his originality as a songwriter and his skills as a fiddler, mandolin player, and guitarist ... if you're willing to back an emerging new talent, look no further than Jake Armerding's impressive debut."

WASHINGTON POST
"His instrumental fiddle skills are remarkable."

VINTAGE GUITAR
"Along with infectious melodies, Armerding's lyrics display emotional resonance and intellectual weight."

COUNTRY STANDARD TIME
"His vicious fiddle playing has left a long trail of dropped jaws..."

"I stubbornly refuse to like country, and am slightly dismayed at how much I enjoyed this album..."--Doug Kimball, online review