Kevin Bronson on May 29th, 2014

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Joe Purdy makes it sound so easy. The Arkansas-bred, L.A.-based songwriter, who released a dozen albums between 2001 and 2010, has built a grassroots legion of fans attracted to his plainspoken, evocative folk music, which is about as pure as it gets. Purdy’s calling card is his “voice” – wry, world-weary and guardedly optimistic all at once, not unlike the protagonists in Larry McMurtry novels. The new album “Eagle Rock Fire,” his first full-length since he released two albums in 2010, is full of bittersweet moments captured in his effortless couplets. As in “Ba Girl,” his response to those who tell him all his songs are sad: “Good times they don’t rhyme as well / and happy songs don’t always tell / the truth about the living hell / that a woman sometimes brings. / The girl in Echo Park was cute / ’til she ran off with the Blue Man Group / Chances are it wasn’t meant to be.” The album was recorded the old-fashioned analog way in Purdy’s home studio (he built it himself, of course) in Eagle Rock, and it’s available for free via NoiseTrade [although you should leave a tip]. Over a decade in, Purdy’s songcraft remains as vital as his DIY spirit.

||| Live: Joe Purdy plays the Bootleg on June 6, along with Brian Wright.

||| Stream: After the jump, listen to “Eagle Rock Fire” in its entirety: