Paul Sachs Offers a Rootsy “Tattoo” at Brooklyn Art Haus

Paul Sachs on Guitar / photo by Brianna Lowe

As part of its monthly “Folkus-NYC” Americana music series, Williamsburg’s new Brooklyn Art Haus hosted veteran folksinger Paul Sachs on Jan. 18, 2024. A true down-to-earth, rootsy troubadour, Sachs played a generous 18-song set that included several tunes from his current album, Flash Tattoo, accompanying himself on guitar and occasional harmonica. Here are some highlights from that show:

Paul Sachs Performs at The Brookyln Art Haus / photo by Brianna Lowe

“No Place Special,” which Sachs proudly cited as “One of my favorite songs,” is a slice of Americana in which he proclaims, ”I don’t need no seven wonders to feed my soul,” finding beauty in “an old gas station on a lost highway” and such, concluding, “No place special is where I belong.” “Bang Bang” uses incendiary imagery to describe a passionate affair with a woman who “[shoots] me full of love” and has “firecrackers in her eyes … one look from her blows me away.” On “Earth Day 1990,” he and his friends end up doing more “smoking Mother Nature” than celebrating it, ultimately “forgetting why we came.”

“Sanctify” takes the listener along a roots-inspired odyssey through towns associated with such icons as Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly  nd John Lee Hooker. “Flash Tattoo,” about dropping by a tattoo parlor on a whim, examines, in Sachs words, “the inner life vs. the external life we all live.”

The evening also included a sing-along on “People” with the crowd chanting the refrain, “People are a lot of work / this world can make you go berserk.” Sachs concluded the set with “Fresh Start,” an uplifting song in the same vein as Dylan’s “Forever Young.”