This next album is one of a batch I purchased through download. I prefer the tactile experience of a compact disc, or – occasionally – a record, but over the years the albums on my wish list only available by download has steadily grown. Recently the desire for those albums overcame both my trepidation and my pride, and I went the digital route. Don’t worry, though, I always make a physical copy, so it still counts on the CD Odyssey.
Disc 1405 is…. Tangled Country
Artist: The Honey Dewdrops
Year of Release: 2015
What’s up with the Cover? A fence and a bunch of brambles. I’m not a big fan of either in real life, but they’re pretty enough in this context.
How I Came To Know It: After many years of vainly searching for Honey Dewdrops albums in local record stores and coming up empty, I ordered this through Bandcamp.
How It Stacks Up: I have two Honey Dewdrops albums and am on the hunt for a third. Of the two I have, I put “Tangled Country” in at #1.
Ratings: 5 stars
“Tangled Country”s second track opens with Laura Wortman singing “the loneliest songs are beautiful things.” It’s a great summary for the whole record, which is a bit sadder than their work on “Silver Lining” but so full of grace and pure intent you don’t mind having your heartstrings plucked a little.
The ingredients common to all Honey Dewdrop albums are here. Wortman’s vocals are rich and pure, and partner Kagey Parrish’s are light and wistful. Together they make beautiful harmonies, but it is just as inspiring to hear them sing solo.
A lot of the characters on this record are struggling and hurt. “Same Old” is a collapsing relationship, and the refrain of “when you’re broke down” in “Lowlands” digs right to the core of just how that feels. By the time you get to Track Nine and “Numb” the narrator is comparing their emotional state to the depths of a heroin binge.
With all this heartache, you think you’d be depressed, but instead the experience is cathartic. The many characters of “Tangled Country” share their deepest secrets and fears and insecurities, but there is a thread of resilience through the record as well. The combination puts you in a vulnerable emotional state, but it isn’t threatening or frightening so much as just really good therapy.
There is also a lot of strength in these characters. My favourite is the sketch of Parrish’s grandfather in “Fair Share Blues”. The song starts with an evocative line that immediately sets the scene:
“My father’s father was a working man
He fought in the war, and he lived with that.
He drank and prayed, and he got the blues
He never said nothing that wasn’t true”
The portrait is of a rough-edged man with deep reserves of inner peace. Life isn’t easy, but Parrish’s grandfather gets through the days with the simple refrain of “You get the good days, and you get the blues.” Various verses employ the simple imagery of hands, thoughts, and breathing to preach a message of acceptance. Here’s my favourite:
“He said neither can I possess
Any of the air I take for breath
Each breath I take I must release
Nothing is mine to hold or keep.”
Despite the title, the song is not a blues track, although Wortman’s harmonica provides a mournful hint of the blues around the edges of bluegrass guitar and banjo. The music is like the song’s message; light and dark at ease with one another.
As ever, Honey Dewdrops demonstrate exceptional musicianship throughout the record. Every tune is played with relaxed grace that immediately sets you down in the emotional centre of the song. The songwriting feels more subtle and nuanced than on 2012’s “Silver Lining” and it was already amazing on that record. The mournful and uncertain “Young” which explores the uncertainty of getting older, has a melody that drifts with uncertainty and pain even as the character confronts these same emotions.
Every track on this record made my heart swell. If there was any criticism, it would be that the metaphors on “Horses” and “Guitars” are over-employed, but these tunes are so sublime you forgive the slight excess.
The album ends with the instrumental “Remington,” one of the finest bits of guitar and banjo playing you will hear this side of heaven (if there is a heaven, it absolutely has guitar and banjo). Not only did I revel in this record’s technical brilliance, every listen caused a feeling of grace to come over me and stay with me for hours after. I’ll count that as “changed me somehow” and so, here’s your 5 stars, Honey Dewdrops. Well done.
Best tracks: All ten tracks are great, but my seven favourites are: Same Old, Loneliest Songs, Lowlands, Fair Share Blues, Young, Numb, Remington
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