Colin Meloy and John RoderickWednesday, January 22How many floppy-haired, bespectacled, NPR-adored, guitar-playing,

January 16, 2014 4:40 pm
Colin Meloy and John RoderickWednesday, January 22How many floppy-haired, bespectacled, NPR-adored, guitar-playing,

Colin Meloy and John Roderick

Wednesday, January 22

How many floppy-haired, bespectacled, NPR-adored, guitar-playing, indie-folk songwriters can you get onto one bill? Well, maybe only two, but it’s still a great pairing. (Where is Jonathan Coulton when you need him?) Decemberists leader Meloy, who hasn’t released an album with that band since 2011, concludes his first solo tour in five years with this stop in Seattle. Meloy is celebrating this tour, as he has previous ones, with a new covers project: a series of EPs, available only at the shows, that has included Morrissey, Shirley Collins, and Sam Cooke. Meloy had trouble deciding whom to cover for this installment, so he chose randomly by throwing something at a group of records he was torn between. He ended up recording Colin Meloy Sings the Kinks.

In addition to some covers, Meloy will play new material, which will eventually make up a new Decemberists record. “I’ll probably try to throw in more deep cuts,” Meloy told Rolling Stone

in November about the set list. “Just because I feel like the people that come out to the solo shows tend to be that 10 percent of die-hard Decemberists fans that know all the weird songs we recorded in two minutes in 2004 and put on a Kill Rock Stars B-side.” During his Decemberists hiatus, Meloy has penned two fantasy children’s novels: The Wildwood Chronicles, both of which his wife, Carson Ellis, illustrated, and which were both New York Times best-sellers. (The third will be released in February.)

Joining Meloy on the last four shows of the tour (the first leg featured Eleanor Friedberger) is local luminary John Roderick of The Long Winters, who has also found success as a writer, for years as a Seattle Weekly columnist. Though he’s been less active as a solo artist of late, he’s continued to collaborate and produce, and recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of The Long Winters’ seminal When I Pretend to Fall with a series of special shows, including one at this very venue. The Neptune, 1303 N.E. 45th St., 682-1414, stgpresents.org. 8 p.m. $30. All ages.