Artist Roky Erickson

That 13th Floor Elevators frontman Roky Erickson survived his long battle with mental illness to see the primordial psychedelic sound he helped popularize revived by a new generation is miraculous. That he’s also returned to regular gigging suggests some next-level cosmic shit, as Erickson has kept up a string of festival appearances that would exhaust bands half his age and nowhere near as acid-fried. Some of that newfound energy comes borrowed from young collaborators like erudite indie-rockers Okkervil River, who backed Erickson on 2010’s album, True Love Cast Out All Evil, his first of new material in 15 years. It’s some of his most spiritual and personal material to date, like the beatific title track and the sad lament of “Goodbye Sweet Dreams.”

Updated 05/10/2012