ALTERED STATES

Due to some good old tightening of the purse strings I haven't bought much new music lately. But a friend of mine at my Gladstone Coffee Shop hangout convinced me to give Sufjan Stevens a listen ( his first name is pronounced Soof-yan).

In case you haven't heard of him, Stevens is a 30-year-old Detroit native who has embarked on a rather massive musical undertaking. His goal? To live in each of the 50 U.S. states for a spell and then make an album about each state. First he tackled his home turf on a CD called Greetings from Michigan, playing (and this is just the tip of the orchestra) oboe, banjo, acoustic & electric guitars, glockenspiel and sleigh bells.

Greetings from Michigan is a decent album, but it's nothing compared to the wonderful 2005 follow-up, Illinoise. With his soft, dreamy vocals and his often ethereal arrangements, Stevens serves up 22 tracks based on Illinois themes. He doesn't win a lot of points for succinct song titles, though. My favorite track goes by the long-winded moniker "Come On! Feel the Illinoise! Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition/Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me In a Dream."

Watch out for the song about clown-faced serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Jr. It will freeze your blood if you listen closely enough.

Rumor has it that Oregon is the next entry in Sufjan's travelogue. Hopefully he can squeeze in an ode to Tanya Harding. He could call it, "Meditations on an Ice Ballerina Marred by Allegations of Unsportsmanlike Conduct Part I."