THERE’S A STORM IN ‘DRAMA CITY’

Jabe Beyer knows it’s a disgusting metaphor before he even brings it up. But bear with him, he pleads.

“I always relate songs to puking,” says the singer-songwriter who leads the acclaimed roots-rocking Boston outfit JABE. “You think you’re gonna puke, you just don’t know when. But when it comes out, you can’t stop it. And you can see all the stuff inside you.” Beyer apologizes when the unsavory moment is over and he’s finished making his very vivid point. It’s one well taken, though. His band’s latest album, “Drama City” (out on his own Woodeye Records label and available at www.jabe.net), can also be heard as a reflex action to the emotional upheaval that afflicted all four members of the group last year. The album, cut mostly live in a three room cabin in Plymouth, also happens to be the best thing he has ever done.

“We made the record in a week and when I listened back I thought, ‘Wow, this is pretty melodramatic,’” says Beyer, who through word of mouth has built a strong local following (and not one but two CD-Release parties, slated to April 4 and 5 at the Lizard Lounge, testify to his popularity).

“Every night you’d go out and people were getting into arguments, couples breaking up, or somebody would get arrested or their car stolen. So to me, Boston was Drama City.” Hapless love affairs, dashed dreams, and fractured friendships all reside inside songs such as the high octane banjo-driven opener “Those Times Are Over,” the Pogues-style jig “Into a Wall,” and the meditative “Pitch Black Road.” But even at its most subdued, Jabe's music is a quiet storm of desire and disillusion. Buried somewhere inside all the bleakness, though, he says, is always a flicker of hope.

“We have a song called ‘Can’t Be That Bad’ and in writing that I was saying, ‘Yeah, it might be like you’re growing up too fast or you’re in the wrong town or you don’t know what the hell you’re doing and your best friend just became somebody you can’t talk to anymore’,” Beyer says. “But if you don’t hold out for that light at the end of the tunnel it’s going to turn on you really fast, and you’re going to go deeper into yourself where it’s dark.”

The native of upstate New York moved from Boston to New Hampshire last year, but his music has never bothered with boundaries. His songs, built from a combustible mix of electrified violin, banjo, mandolin, guitar, and propulsive percussion, is an effortless amalgam of rock, folk, and bluegrass. His band--which includes bass player Jay Aucella, drummer Dave Westner, and multi-instrumentalist Sean Staples—is top-notch, capable of Crazy Horse stomp one moment and Old 97’s swing the next.

Beyer’s warm, earthy voice echoes Bruce Springsteen, and it’s a perfect match for the rustic, hard-won lessons and truths found in Jabe’s songs.

“On the most primal level, I’m just trying to explain myself to myself,” he says before catching himself. “Not that I have the answers to anything.”

Jonathan Perry’s Rock Scene column runs April 24th :
Email: roughgems@aol.com