SPECTRE FOLK at The Drake – Amherst, MA

Pete Nolan was Spectre Folk before drumming and strumming in Magik Markers was his main gig, and will be Spectre Folk long after he shuffles off this mortal coil. The main benefit of ghost-folk is: you can play it way after you’re dead, and while you’re alive the Spectre can haunt any decent willing body with a gift for the unreal. This time around, fellow Abbey Road alum and cinematographer Eben Bull creates scapes of sound on keys to accompany Pete, who jams his kief-encrusted thumbprint directly in the center of the proceedings.Also, in the crew are Tuscadero frontperson Mellie Ferris on bass, fellow Magik Marker, John Shaw, on drums and Pete’s daughter little Violet Ray on guitar. The music they make takes a leisurely pace, like opening the cabin for the first time in the season, introducing all the ambient nature world funk that seeped through into the nose and lungs. They deal in righteous, stank Lazy Horse/CCCR type jammers and a general sense of “folk vacation,” the beer’s gone, what a time we had so let’s roll another number for the road. Fearless as a lemming, Nolan creates a private universe, a Society of the Spectre-cal, if you will, and his gift is his freedom. Let’s have a drift.