Music

Tucson-based singer and songwriter Kevin Pakulis, who was raised on the East Coast, has absorbed the music of his adopted hometown. “I’d never heard Mexican music until I got to Tucson. I liked it immediately, draw from it occasionally. Carefully. I feel like I’m a guest at the table.” (photo courtesy of the artist)

Tucson’s Pakulis turns on 'Mockingbird Radio'

By Chris Hansen Orf, Get Out

December 20, 2007

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The way Tucson singer/songwriter Kevin Pakulis tells it, despite the fact he’s been a fine guitar picker since the age of 14, he never thought much about writing songs and singing them until just a few years ago.

“I was OK with just being a blue-collar guitar player ekeing out a living,” says Pakulis, a native of New York who moved to Tucson in the 1970s “in a rusted-out ’69 Ford Falcon station wagon with a three-speed on the column, some clothes, bedroll, Gibson acoustic and about 200 vinyl LPs for ballast.

“I finally figured out that there was this wonderful creative process that I was missing out on. So I started trying to write and wrote a bunch of bad songs, got some good feedback, and kept at it. Eventually I began to say what I thought I wanted to say, in a way I thought I wanted to say it. Pretty cool when I turned that corner.”

And did Pakulis ever turn that corner, winning first place in the Tucson Folk Festival songwriting competition in 2004 and winning kudos in the often critically vicious alt-country 'zine No Depression, which said Pakulis “outright nails it. His music represents the best of a genre.”

Just exactly what the genre is though, is difficult to peg upon listening to Pakulis’ brilliant new disc, “mockingbird radio.” He veers from bluesy, Mark Knopfler- and Stevie Ray Vaughan-esque guitar workouts to acoustic folk to Tejano-influenced country to Springsteen-styled rock, with Pakulis peeling off a smattering of tasty hooks, riffs and solos throughout.

“Sales are doing well in Arizona,” Pakulis says, who says airplay on Tucson community radio has boosted exposure. “It’s nice to watch more and more people come out to the shows, and quite often it’s because they’ve heard us on KXCI. It’s an exciting time. We’re enjoying it.”

Pakulis signed with Tucson’s San Jacinto Records, which was founded by Sand Rubies guitarist Rich Hopkins, after he played a benefit for Casa Maria Soup Kitchen, where Hopkins volunteers.

“Somehow,” Pakulis says with a chuckle, “in the course of them feeding people, I ended up with a record deal. Go figure.”

The label put Tucson’s “desert rock” sound on the map in the ’80s, signing bands such as Sidewinders, Gin Blossoms and Naked Prey.

“Desert rock? Desert noir? What do they call it these days?” muses Pakulis. “I like the sparseness, I like the minimalism. I might have picked up some of that from having it around me (in Tucson) all these years. I like the space.

“Didn’t always. But I do now.”

Kevin Pakulis performs 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21, at Club Mardi Gras, 8040 E. McDowell Road, Scottsdale. $5. (480) 970-5707 or myspace.com/kevinpakulis

Contact Chris Hansen Orf by email, or phone (480) 898-5684

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