"I'm going be a strange hybrid of Mick Jagger and Johnny Cash, with a touch of Steve Forbert [singer-songwriter best known for his 1980 hit "Romeo's Tune"] and some animated bear whose name I can't remember. Oh yeah, and some hip-hop too -- the kids love that sh*t," jokes Eric Bachmann when asked what the long-term future holds.
The driving force behind pop-folk band Crooked Fingers, Bachmann has already successfully gone through several musical incarnations. He fronted the seminal Archers Of Loaf throughout the 1990s, before setting out on his own in 1999. Crooked Fingers, which has seen Bachmann play with a rotating cast of musicians, bears little resemblance to his earlier efforts.
More Americana than angular like the Archers, Crooked Fingers creates lush, rootsy music that's somber yet hopeful. Bachmann incorporates banjo, cello, steel guitar, double bass, horns and violin into the band's boozy, barroom ballads, giving them a welcome Tom Waits feel.