Marshall Crenshaw Headlines Maplewoodstock

Singer, guitar player and much-celebrated songwriter Marshall Crenshaw says he thinks his upcoming appearance at Maplewoodstock will be his first performance in that New Jersey town.

If he’s a little fuzzy on the details it’s because by his own admission the veteran rocker, who has spent the bulk of his adult life touring, has a better mind for music than for maps.

“I’m wired in such a way that I can really comprehend music," he said from his home in Dutchess County, NY. “I have a good ear, but mostly I just really dig the stuff.”

In the fall, Crenshaw will launch a proper tour in support of his new album Jaggedland, which dropped on June 2. For the summer he’s only got a few “one-off” gigs lined up, of which Maplewoodstock is one. He said his setlist will be half new songs, and half the classics that have made him a successful and revered songwriter.

Born and raised in Detroit, Crenshaw scored his biggest hit early, the chiming and catchy “Someway, Somehow.” In his early years he was often compared to Buddy Holly, whom he played in the 1987 film La Bamba. However, his music soon proved too eclectic to be defined by those initial comparisons. Nor could his sound, often called “power pop” with plenty of jazzy flavorings, be predicted based on his geographic proximity to fellow Detroit rockers including Iggy Pop, the MC5, Alice Cooper, the White Stripes and Kid Rock.

“We do tend to focus on a certain handful of artists that have come out of there and say, ‘That’s Detroit,’” Crenshaw said. “But it’s actually a little more eclectic and a little more varied than you might think.”

Though he toured with the MC5, Crenshaw said perhaps his two biggest musical influences from the Motor City were Canadian-born rockabilly artist Jack Scott and Motown.

“There’s a rawness and elegance to it,” he said. “So I’m probably more from that school.”

In addition to making records, Crenshaw also played John Lennon in an Off-Broadway show and penned the title track to the 2007 John C. Reilly film Walk Hard. Though he admits that film “has been a very good medium to me,” today, his thespian talents have been relegated to scoring and music supervision on a couple of independent films.

Crenshaw said the lyrical themes on Jaggedland deal with mortality, love and the state of the world.

“There’s a lot of personal observation and personal experience,” he said. “And the music’s really nice too.”

Crenshaw recorded Jaggedland with some of his musical heroes, including drummer Jim Keltner, who has played with Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton, and producer/engineer Jerry Boys, who worked with artists ranging from the Beatles to the Buena Vista Social Club. He said the fact that his material excited the A-team he enlisted to help make the record gave him a boost of confidence.

“I love the record, I’m really proud of it, and I’m really anxious to get people to know it,” he said, adding that his gig at Maplewoodstock, performing in a trio, will be one of his first opportunities to play songs off Jaggedland before an audience.

“I think it will be really cool, I’m looking forward to it,” he said.

Crenshaw plays Sunday, July 12, at 5:30pm at Memorial Park in Maplewood. Admission is free. For more information visit www.maplewoodstock.com.