Five reasons to go see Josh T. Pearson
The bearded Lift to Experience singer-songwriter favours good stage chat and sad songs
1. He was in the mighty Lift To Experience
Josh laid his heart bare earlier this year with The Last of The Country Gentlemen, his debut solo album. It will no doubt be topping many an end-of-year list, and has already been named as Rough Trade's Album of the Year – and for good reason too: it’s one of the most solitary albums of recent years, recorded in the heart of winter in Berlin right after the failure of his marriage. But before that, Pearson was the head honcho of one of the most criminally under-rated groups of the noughties, the Texan trio Lift to Experience. Releasing only one sprawling concept album, The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads, which told of the return of Jesus to the desert planes of Texas and the subsequent rapture, it meshed Josh’s stark lyricism with psychedelic arches and post-rock grandiosity.
2. His live set might make you cry …
… but in a good way. The intensity of the record has been exemplified in countless venues across Europe and the States over the past year, as anyone who caught his set at this year’s Homegame weekender in Anstruther will testify.
3. He’s from Texas
His serious drawl matches some very serious songwriting. But don’t be fooled entirely, his live stage banter and self-deprecating humour cuts the ice – directly before burying a very deep hatchet.
4. He has a great beard
He truly does, majestic in both its length and volume, which many a beard admirer could swoon over in equal measures. Competition-worthy growth, to say the least.
5. He’s not all doom and gloom …
… he does Erasure covers too. Look up his cover of ‘A Little Respect’ on YouTube for evidence [see below].
Oran Mor, Glasgow, Tue 22 Nov.