Published: Oct 10, 2008 Raleigh News and Observer Hobex frontman goes folksy BY DAVID MENCONI, Staff Writer For the past dozen years, Greg Humphreys has been familiar to local audiences as leader of the band Hobex, a sunny funk-pop soul band. But "Trunk Songs" (www.greghumphreys.net), Humphreys' first solo album, is nothing like what you'd expect. Where Hobex is perfect cookout music, "Trunk Songs" sounds more like what you'd hear at a campfire in a rustic setting. In contrast to Hobex's upbeat party music, "Trunk Songs" is quiet, folksy and mostly plaintive. "This is kind of back to the roots of how I ended up playing music," Humphreys says. "My dad was a folkie, always playing music while I was growing up in Winston. This album is kind of a continuation of stuff he was doing -- which I rebelled against in high school, of course, with a total garage-rock band. "But this is stripped down to bare song and voice," he adds. "Doing a literal solo album is something I've always meant to do. But I just never got around to it before. So I'm glad I finally did. I guess you could say I'm 'seasoned' as a player and writer and singer. Maybe it's a good thing I waited." Even if "Trunk Songs" seems out of context for Hobex, it fits as another step in the overall arc of Humphreys' career. Before Hobex, Humphreys led the band Dillon Fence, recording a handful of fine college-radio pop albums for Mammoth Records in the 1990s. He's also been a valued sideman with Dana Kletter's folk group