Leave It to Beaverman

Native New Yorkers are fairly familiar with folk tales about H.W. Beaverman. For born-and-bred Buckeyes, Folklore will fill in the details tonight during its Cleveland show. On its debut CD, The Ghost of H.W. Beaverman, the quirky pop sextet took the hand-me-down scary stories and crafted a concept album of short yarns. "The songs follow the rumor tree backwards, starting with the least-informed person," says Jimmy Hughes, the band's 32-year-old leader. "Then each song reveals something the last person didn't know until, at the end, you finally meet Beaverman in the flesh." Growing up in New York, Hughes heard all the tales before. There's the one in which Beaverman drowns two Army cadets in Lake Bonaparte. It's the kind of whispered campfire story, Hughes says, that supposedly is based on freewheeling characters in the region's past.On the band's second album, Ghost Stories and Ancestry, Hughes wrote a cache of material to supplement the Beaverman legend. "It's more about the ghost stories of the region and the ancestry of H.W. Beaverman," he says. "I'm writing fiction based on truth based on fiction at this point." Folklore plays at 9 tonight at the Beachland Ballroom, 15711 Waterloo Road. Tickets are $5. Call 216-383-1124 or visit www.beachlandballroom.com.
Sun., March 2, 9 p.m., 2008