Kevin Pakulis and Indie AZ country music

By R. Keith Rugg, 2-22-09

Let me set the scene for you- A cool Tucson evening, out in the foothills with the saguaro cactus silhouetted against the indigo sky and the lights of the city.  A Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in hand as you’re settled down on a bale of straw near a kerosene space heater.  And Nicholas Cage and his band decked out in authentic Western outfits as they play a few sets of good, good country music.

Okay, so it’s not really Nicholas Cage, but Kevin Pakulis does, to my eye at least, have more than a passing resemblance to Cage.  Probably a better singing voice, though.

Everything else I described, however, it could’a (and did) happen that way.  This particular event was a corporate gig with a Western theme, and they couldn’t have fit the bill any better than with Kevin and the guys.  (And they dressed cowboy, dagnabbit, from hats to boots and in-between.  Call me petty, but I think that a country music act ought to dress the part.  And far be it from me to name names, but Mark Wills might want to at least buy some cowboy boots.)

It was a great performance.  They threw a non-country song in now and then, but made it work.  And Kevin came off the stage to teach some two-steppin’ along the way, too.  (Most of the attendees weren’t from the West… I heard one gal exclaim to her friends, “I’m going to go dance with the cowboy!”

Kevin graciously tossed a copy of his album yeah yeah yeah my way, and I’ll share some of the highlights with you here. 

“Roundup O’ Fun” Track 3 on the disc is a great example of what I like to see in a country song; lyrics that show that the writer has lived the life… a song that acknowledges the everyday realities of rural living, whether to celebrate them or to lament them.  Granted, if it’s not handled right, it can move the song from sublime to hokey in a heartbeat, but “Roundup” makes the grade.  There’s a line in it that goes “between the churches and bars, they split the bounty,” and as far as I’m concerned, that about captures the spirit of a Western small town.

“Land of Plenty” This is a good sounding song, but more importantly, displays a sense of empathy about a uniquely Southwestern situation that is truly noteworthy.

“Texas” is a nice solid country piece, “Miserable Man” is a hilarious celebration of curmudgeonry, and “Hey Sam” is quirky and catchy and reveals new philosophical depths each time I hear it.

And the title track, “Yeah Yeah Yeah,” is another song in the vein of “Roundup,” but better, in that it is even more straightforward and simple.

He and the band handled the country standards really well, but I found that Kevin’s own stuff (he wrote all of the songs on this album) exposed me to something I didn’t really have any experience with, I guess it’s an Arizona flavor.  I’m not saying his music is spicy (not like the Chile relleno I had at the convention… kiyiyi-oy!), but that it weaves in a feel for life in the Tucson area, and evokes imagery of some lonesome, haunting, dark and out of focus Southwestern landscapes.  Or maybe it’s just me.  You can check it out for yourself by visiting his Web site at www.kevinpakulis.com.  Click on his ‘Music’ link for the lyrics to nearly two dozen of his songs, and for MP3 downloads of three of them (although none from this album, but you can buy it on CD Baby or direct from Kevin, contact info is available on his site…)

And if you ever, ever find yourself in a situation that allows it, request a live rendition of “Hey Sam,” and tell Kevin that Keith sent you.