D. Charles Speer is touring both solo and with the Helix (photo by Victor Harshbarger)
Sunday, March 13, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston St., $10, 7:00
Saturday, March 19, Ding Dong Lounge, 929 Columbus Ave. at 105th St., 8:00
Tuesday, March 22, Bruar Falls, 245 Grand St. between Driggs & Roebling, $8, 8:00
Saturday, April 16, the Bell House, 149 Seventh St. between Second & Third Aves., Brooklyn, $20, 7:00
Thursday, April 21, Glasslands, 289 Kent Ave., $10, 8:30
www.myspace.com/dcharlesspeer
There aren’t many more fascinating musicians these days than David Charles Shuford. The Atlanta native, who has been based in New York City for nearly twenty years, can morph into several different personas that you would never think could come from the same brain. A former longtime member of the No Neck Blues Band, the artist better known as D. Charles Speer is currently touring in support of two very different records from Thrill Jockey. Arghiledes, now available in a vinyl-only limited edition of five hundred, is a one-man wonder, a seven-song acoustic tribute to Greek music in general and Markos Vamvakaris’s Piraeus Quartet specifically, with Speer playing such instruments as trichordo bouzouki, baglamas, worry bead percussion on whiskey glass, zills, and other strings and percussion. A combination of instrumentals (“Markos’s Cave,” the jazzy “Lost Dervish”) and songs sung in Greek (“O Sinachis”) and English (“Wildlife Preserve”) — in addition to throat singing (“Harmanis”) — Arghiledes is an acoustic delight, a splendid trip to another world; don’t hesitate to start belly dancing if you feel the urge. The final two songs on Arghiledes, “Wildlife Preserve” and “The Heavy Heart of Ando-Yeap,” are rooted more in Americana folk, blues, and psychedelia, terrific lead-ins to Speer’s other major project, D. Charles Speer and the Helix, which is set to release its third full-length album, Leaving the Commonwealth, on April 12. Joined by Hans Chew on piano, Marc Orleans on pedal steel and electric guitar, Ted Robinson on bass, Steven McGuirl on drums, and Margot Bianca on background vocals, Speer unspools nine super-cool tracks reminiscent of Workingman’s Dead-era Grateful Dead, sung in a voice that mixes Pigpen with Jerry and Bob. From “Razorbacked” and “Cumberland” through “Alamoosook Echoes” and “Battle of the Wilderness,” the band takes its time exploring tunes that meander this way and that, coming together to form an intoxicating concoction of alt-country folk-rock swagger. Speer will be playing solo sets March 13 at Mercury Lounge on a bill with the Megaphonic Thrift, Endless Boogie, and Arbouretum, March 19 at the Ding Dong Lounge as part of a joint record release party with Ed Askew and Gary Higgins, and March 22 at Bruar Falls with William Tyler. Then he’ll back in town with the Helix for full-band shows April 16 at the Bell House with Eleventh Dream Day and Come and April 21 at Glasslands with CSC Funk Band and Endless Boogie.