JD McPherson
By the time JD McPherson was 16, he could play guitar and sing and write, and he did what many musical teens of that generation did. He started a garage punk band and he perfected that three-chord frenzy that stems from hormonal urgency. He went to college, got an arts degree, and until the school district cut him loose for his progressive views, McPherson’s day job was as a middle-school art teacher in Oklahoma. Joblessness allowed him to grow his band. By 2012, he’d released Signs and Signifiers, then Let the Good Times Roll. Number three, Undivided Heart and Soul, was finished during the fall of last year. 1950s rock is new to younger listeners today, but it’s the spot on the historic timeline where teen rebellion first kicked in. It faded eventually, but McPherson plays like it never ended.