Jeffrey Lewis is a songsmith in a fairly enviable position: the acclaimed Prince of Anti-Folk who gains long term fans day-by-day through chance happenings on his bundles of music (from work alongside Kimya Dawson, Adam Green and Herman Dune) to homespun comics, to constant touring, to earnest recommendations.

All the while able to  keenly spin his yarns to comfortable capacity venues such as The Internationale and Stereo on Wednesday and Thursday this week, thanks to the promotion of the ever ace Tracer Trails.

Those in the know adore his works and lap up his tours time and again to keep him on a cosy gig venue merry-go-round. This is fuelled without the pressures of a commercial pressure enduing hit single across the dozens of releases in over a decade of active recording, involving dirty bootlegs to full throttle studio recordings.
Latest LP ‘A Turn In The Dream Songs’ sees these efforts crisply compliled into a bared down album cherry picking the sweetest parts of Lewis’s songwriting structures, embezzled cleanly from Manchester’s Analogue Catalogue two deck recording studio.
From the strum along “How Can It Be” and reflective tweeness of “Time Trades” are as poignant as classics “Broken Broken Broken Heart” and “New Old Friends” in both encapsulating the love/lost and social circle threads that are consistently in his work.
The midpoint marker of the new album, “Cult Boyfriend”, is a slick reminder of his ability to ball it up into a rock tune, but with The Junkyard backing him up on Wednesday night you can be assured of a blistering sweep of hid decade deep material across the set – hopefully with a gem of a cover to boot.
If his backing band featuring Schwervon! drummer Nas isn’t enough, support comes from the exitable leader of Dufus, Seth Faergolzia.
Although as a ‘band’ they have been around since 1997 – Faergolzia remains the constant figurehead. Winds of change blow across each Dufus record in terms of musicianship, but the eerie and exposed vocals – not far removed from the Mountain Goats John Darnielle- remain a constant. Whilst the crunked-out, percussion heavy efforts of his darker material may be tricky to pull off solo – the character of Faergolzia would be worth getting down for alone.

Wed 26th –   Edinburgh: The Internationale (Medina) , 45 Lothian St)

BOTH NIGHTS NINE QUIDS!!!

Thu 27th – Glasgow: Stereo, 20-28 Renfield Lane

(ALSO – In-store art talk by Jeffrey at Mono / Monorail Music 12 KINGS COURT KING STREET, GLASGOW, G1 5RB, 6:30PM FREE!)