Phosphorescent: Which Zula for Newport?

Matthew Houck (a.k.a. Phosphorescent) - Photo by Dusdin Condren
Matthew Houck (a.k.a. Phosphorescent) – Photo by Dusdin Condren

Making his Newport Folk Festival debut next month, Alabamian turned Brooklynite Phosphorescent (a.k.a. Matthew Houck) is known for layering his folk songs with sonic textures. “Song for Zula” – the most popular song off of Houck’s latest album, Muchacho (Amazon MP3 & Spotify) – is loaded with keyboards and synthetic sounds making it just fine for this weekend’s Northside Festival in Brooklyn, but a bit of a stretch for a folk festival. While Newport has welcomed quite a few keyboards in recent years, a folker has got to wonder how Houck will play “Zula” next month.

I came across this stripped guitar-only down version of the song and a live version of the full-on keyboard version. Which one do you want, folkers?