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Dynamic dude Mike Doughty brings his singular sound to Higher Ground

One of the most unique singer-songwriters around, Mike Doughty has an uncanny knack for marrying poetic yet playful wordplay with consistently catchy choruses, infectious melodies and funky beats.

Called "hip, funny and a wordsmith of the highest order" by the Associated Press, Doughty, 38, is the former front man of offbeat alt-pop group Soul Coughing, which the All Music Guide calls "one of the most unique cult bands of the '90s." (Some may recall the group's killer 1998 show at Higher Ground.)

The Brooklyn-based artist (and accomplished writer) returns to the Burlington area for the first time in two years for a seated show Sunday at the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge. Though he recently toured with his full four-piece band, Doughty is currently performing as a duo with regular bassist/multi-instrumentalist and fellow Brooklynite, Andrew "Scrap" Livingston, 32.

Opening the show is Jennings, aka Mary Jennings, a New York City-based electro-pop singer-keyboardist.

Doughty's latest CD, "Golden Delicious," which features his full band, was released in early 2008. A follow-up to his solid 2005 CD, "Haughty Melodic" – a Top Five album on AAA radio thanks to the up-tempo yet pensive single, "Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well" — "Golden Delicious" is easily Doughty's most accomplished solo effort to date.

For starters, the disc delivers a more live and cohesive sound, a reflection of the rapport that Doughty and his now-steady band – which includes keyboardist John Kirby and drummer Peter McNeal in addition to Livingston – have developed in the past several years.

Also, whereas "Haughty Melodic" took a full three years to complete, "Golden Delicious" was done in a mere two months.

"With 'Haughty,' (producer Dan Wilson and I) started with drum machine, piano and guitar," says Doughty in his press materials. "We kept bringing people in to lay down drums, pedal steel or whatever, layer on layer. This time the intention was to make everything live, spontaneous and of the moment."

For "Golden Delicious," Doughty decided to abide by his self-dubbed "dude theory," which he describes as "the idea of making a relaxed record that sounds like a bunch of dudes playing music for the pure joy of playing."

Standout tracks include the upbeat and joyous "I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress to Keep on Dancing," the loping "Put It Down" and the percolating "Nectarine." "I Wrote a Song about Your Car" rides a funky groove, while the humorous live staple "27 Jennifers" is the disc's most rockin' cut.

Especially poignant is the anti-war opener "Fort Hood," which laments the loss of innocence for American soldiers while incorporating the "Let the Sunshine In" chorus from the 1960s musical "Hair" to powerful effect. Named after the U.S. Army base that has seen more casualties in the Iraq War than any other, the anthemic tune was inspired by Doughty's visit with wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

The son of a career military man who grew up moving from base to base, Doughty rebelled against his military upbringing and headed to New York City to study poetry at the New School.

"I was a fish out of water in the extreme; I was too sensitive, too questioning," he says. "When I found music, it changed everything."

Doughty met the members of Soul Coughing while working the door at the storied New York nightclub, the Knitting Factory. By then, he had already developed the rhythmic, syncopated style of guitar playing that has become one of his trademarks.

"I listened to Public Enemy and tried to play their rhythms on guitar," he explains. "I started playing the rhythms within the melodies."

"I'm rhythmically driven; it's my blessing and my curse," adds Doughty. "The rhythms of my guitar, the nature of my voice and the strange cadence of the lyrics aren't funky enough to be funk, but they're too funky to be rock."

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