May's musical persona isn't as much of a put-on as his aesthetic would suggest, though. "My visual style is a little kitschy," May concedes, "but my record is super sincere and personal."
Indeed, his new debut, "The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele," is a swinging-'60s valentine to underdogs, wallflowers, nostalgia, and misadventures in love.
It turns out May, who opens for A.C. Newman at the Paradise Rock Club on Saturday, has a soft spot for the down and out. He champions people like the protagonist of his song "Howard," a washed-up rock 'n' roll singer who's ready to live again. "Howard's going bald now/ He feels like a hack/ He thought that he was burned out/ But he's back." Over a breezy beat and tambourine taps, May sings and performs with such glee that it's impossible to feel sorry for the song's sad sack.
Other times May's social commentary can cut a little deeper, until you don't know if he's undermining or defending his characters. On "College Town Boy," a cheeky ode to the poor guy who's full of excuses about why he hasn't left, he does both: "College town boy/ How does it feel to be nothing?/ Since graduation day he feels like a fraud/ He still regrets he never studied abroad/ He's never been to Paris, never to Prague/ Oh, my god."
May had the idea for his debut long before he had the music. The album's title refers to the first CD he ever bought: "The Good-Feeling Music of the Big Chill Generation." It was essentially a knock-off of the soundtrack for "The Big Chill," an oldies compilation of harmony-drenched groups, like the Mamas and the Papas, that would later influence May's sound.
The Mississippi native remembers feeling a creative itch at an early age - singing in his church's youth choir, performing in school plays, taking voice lessons. He picked up his first ukulele, a toy version lying around the house, when he was about 7 years old, and the first song he ever learned, a cover of the Four Preps' "26 Miles (Santa Catalina)," appears on his debut.
