Maybe it’s just Bobble Tiki, and that’s just fine — but does it seem to anyone else like Ian McFeron, despite his youthful looks and, in fact, youthful age, has been around for freakin’ ever? In Bobble Tiki’s head, at least, it feels like McFeron has been bringing his easy, breezy, Mountain FM-ready tunes to Tacoma as long as he can remember — which, granted, isn’t all that long considering Bobble Tiki’s boxed wine problem, but still.

The Ian McFeron Band has become a fixture in Tacoma and all around the Northwest. Bobble Tiki’s got a friend with an Ian McFeron Nalgene bottle to prove it. Bobble Tiki guarantees you that his friend uses that Ian McFeron Nalgene bottle more than he wears his Jude Bowerman boxer shorts.

But Bobble Tiki digresses. …

Yes, for a rosy cheeked chap in his late 20s, McFeron and his band have been around the block more than most — probably driving some vegetable oil powered, hippie smelling, jam van the whole time. But that’s OK. This is but one of the many charms of Ian McFeron — who seems to have sold his soul to the gods of jam and roots Americana for better or worse.

In Bobble Tiki’s estimation, the results of that soul sale have been a resounding success.
Friday, April 10, the Ian McFeron Band will play an all-ages show at Jazzbones in Tacoma to help bust the champagne on the band’s new full-length effort — Love Me Blue, which officially saw the light of day March 21. It’s the band’s fifth full-length effort.

“Love Me Blue is a poetic narrative spanning themes of love and faith, disillusionment and new beginnings, threaded with a veiled sense of hope that has created lifelong fans out of his listeners,” says promotional material for the new record on McFeron’s MySpace page.

“Ian McFeron is freakin’ good,” says Bobble Tiki.

Check out both points of view this Friday at Jazzbones. Judge for yourself.

[Jazzbones, Friday, April 10, 8 p.m., all ages, $5, 2803 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.396.9169]