Nebraskan trio The Wildwoods release an evocative folk-americana collection filled with sublime vocal harmonies.
Hailing from Lincoln, Nebraska, folk-Americana trio The Wildwoods have delivered their fourth studio album, “Dear Meadowlark”, on which the band set out to “bring sonic beauty and simplicity to today’s increasingly complicated and cluttered musical landscape”, and it is a task which they achieve with distinction on this mostly acoustic collection.
From the get-go, the listener is treated to some stunning melodies and harmonies. Album opener ‘Meadowlark’ is an atmospheric acapella number capturing the beauty and infinite skyline of the prairies. These exquisite harmonies permeate the whole collection, with the main vocal duties taken up by Chloe Gose, ably supported by husband Noah and bassist Andrew Vaggalis. Lead single ‘Sweet Niobrara’ kicks in with an upbeat, folky, almost bluegrass rhythm for this sweeping road song dedicated to a Nebraska village. Harmonies and vivid lyrics are to the fore once again as “the clouds, they roam like buffalo in the sky”. If ‘Sweet Niobrara’ is about leaving a place, then the second picture-postcard song ‘I Will Follow You to Willow’, another ode to a Nebraskan town, is the return journey, with a heartfelt promise to return to “silver, cotton sky”. The wide-open spaces of the mid-west states are a running theme across the album, as are the comforts of home and familiar surroundings. The slow electric blues of ‘Rabbit Hill’ evokes a small town party where “Up on Rabbit Hill, the band is playing loud.” under clear night skies.
For all the imagery of big skies, open roads and a simpler lifestyle, the songs reach beyond the warm pastoral scenes. ‘Poster Child’ reflects on the restlessness of youth and the urge to leave a place where those long roads invoke the need to “Jump in your car. Go somewhere far away“. Those who stay are not left out. In ‘Hideaway’, The Wildwoods sing about the suffocating claustrophobia of a small town, and the eerie, jazz-tinged, ’Under the Rug’ seems to alternate between the sadness of a forgotten lover and a darker domestic undercurrent. The upbeat ‘Footprints on the Floor’ sees Noah Gose taking over vocal duties for this fiddle-led number, which, with its bright tone and jaunty rhythm, belies the disturbing lyrics where losing “Yellow teeth in the mirror” is just “one less thing to worry about”.
On “Dear Meadowlark”, The Wildwoods have crafted a fine collection of evocative pieces. The roots style instrumentation of upright bass, acoustic guitar and fiddles blend perfectly with the Gose voices. If it has a fault, it is that the clearly well-matched harmonies can feel a little overused; at points, they can steer the songs into the direction of background ‘mood’ music, which this excellent collection of folk americana certainly is not.
