WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA – With his full head of disheveled hair, his loose-fitting suit and his self-decorated acoustic guitar, Joseph Arthur exactly filled the role of an itinerant troubadour onstage at this legendary West Hollywood club. He also matched the profile of one who is singularly focused upon his music alone, as he said little to this full-house audience between songs. Singing from the perspective of a less environmentally-centered Karl Wallinger, yet remaining just as equally passionate, Arthur’s songs are of a much more personal sort of spirituality than are World Party’s largely universal themes. And unlike your typical Sunday sermon, this was a show filled with a lot of good questions, but few easy answers.
Arthur tends to bring language of the Spirit into everyday relationship situations, rather than trying to push any kind of a propagandistic agenda upon his listeners. “You Are The Dark,” from his most recent release, Redemption’s Son, for example, digs for evidences of good and evil within a lover. This starkly contrasts artists who might, say, attempt to explain learned religious principles through song. Like a master storyteller, Arthur many times puts himself into uncomfortable character situations, from being an unwilling Mexican revolutionary to speaking as a partner in a soured relationship.
This humble singer/songwriter initially looked mighty naked as he hit the stage with just an acoustic guitar and a few stray harmonicas as his tools. But he soon demonstrated technical skills far beyond those most often exhibited by your typical acoustic strummer simpleton. By pounding on the body of his guitar and inputting these homemade beats into a sampler box onstage, Arthur was able to transform himself into a one-man band. Such innovations served to change many of his simpler folk moments into creations much closer to ambient dance music, and also allowed him freedom enough to stretch out for a few extended, psychedelic guitar solos.
As with all true troubadours worth their salt, Arthur is more about the journey than the destination. And in concert, it was a joy just to be one of his fellow travelers.