M. Ward, the exceptional singer-songwriter with nearly a dozen albums to his shared or solo credit – yet who has only recently come to some fans’ attention via his work with Zooey Deschanel as She & Him– is the sort of unstuck-in-time artist who was born to play the marvelously resonant Masonic Lodge, an elegant upstairs space near the main gates of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Stepping onto those grounds can feel like stepping back in history, but this particular room has its own ambiance apart from the sprawl of headstones. It appears newly dressed up for the occasional small-scale concerts that have become commonplace here, yet nothing can hide the venue’s movie-star lore (or the array of ’70s film posters that adorn it) or the fact that countless funeral ceremonies have been held within its dark red walls and wooded A-frame ceiling. It’s a world away from the rush of humanity just outside, and the quietude inside can leave you feeling like time has ceased to exist.

Ward’s transfixing music can have much the same effect. What can seem like deceptively simple songs actually aim for timelessness at every turn, sounding as rustic as unearthed field recordings yet as freshly infectious as any of the other neo-traditionalists and young innovators he’ll appear alongside in April at Coachella. For all the deserved hoopla heaped onto the next wave of Americana modernists – My Morning Jacket, Wilco, Ryan Adams, anything involving Jack White – Ward merits inclusion near their top ranks.

It’s taken profile-lifting roles alongside Jess the It Girl and his Monsters of Folk pals Jim James and Conor Oberst for Ward to get properly noticed, but that’s in large part because the 38-year-old is a natural outlier. There’s just something different about Matt; he doesn’t act like other indie stars.

Read more on M. Ward on the Orange County Register’s Soundcheck Blog.

By Ben Wener, for the Orange County Register.

More O.C. Nightlife:

• Live Review: Gotye lives up to hype at El Rey
• Slideshow: Old Scratch turns up the volume at La Cave in Costa Mesa
• Slideshow: Gabriel & Dresden at Sutra in Costa Mesa
• Warped Tour headed to Great Park in Irvine
• O.C.’s Author & Finisher debuts music video for its latest single
• Where’s the Band? tour comes to O.C.
• Slideshow: Miss Musink competition kicks off in Fullerton
• Slideshow: OC Music Awards showcase packs the Tiki Bar
• Slideshow: Miss Musink competition kicks off in Fullerton

Follow the Encore Blog on Facebook at Facebook.com/encoreOC and on Twitter @encore_oc.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.