The Wooden Sky

     Every now and then I get the feeling that an album was written with me in mind.  This morning I thought to myself that The Wooden Sky must have sat down one day to write a record and said, "alright mark, we know that you have been hanging out in your family room for the last 10 years pathetically trying to write genuinely inspired alt country love songs while pretending you are not the only person in your band... so we're gonna write the album you always wanted to."  I was insulted at this notion (even if it was my own imagining) but that's pretty much what happened and so we got "If i don't come home you'll know i'm gone".     

    In many ways this album represents a recent love affair i have developed with the whole folksy-alternative-country-indie-rootsy genre.  Wooden sky has found the beauty that lies in simplicity.  Esp when a song writer can stick with real simple GCD progressions but still manage to keep it fresh.  They also manage to avoid the cheese ball lyrics of country, the boring songwriting of folk and the obnoxious gimmicks you find in far too many indie bands these days.  You won't find any gimmicks here more than changing time sigs from 4 to 3 (which they do - see track 8).

    At first, the titles made me skip right to the third song (what with all those obnoxious parenthesis in the song titles and such) (oh the irony)... but that really wasn't a good idea because the album as a whole sets you up for one straight listen through.  Much like the great epics of our time (sarcasm) such as "Up" (see below) or "Lord of the Rings" (which I'm sure will find its way into this blog eventually) this albums creates a great narrative.  The opening track introduces you to the characters, track three "Angels" sets up the conflict, "an evening hymm" and "something hiding for us in the night" explores the inner turmoil, all of which set up the triumphant climax of the "the late king henry."  thats how i see it at least. 

     But I think my favorite aspect of this album is it keeps it real.   The songs grab you with harmonies and catchy phrasing without out being over-glorified, pretentious, over the top, or trying to pretend that life is more exciting than it is.  They create a great feel that seems harder to come by lately and it got me to listen to the album over and over again – which I have done about 10 times this week.


- By Mark