This next album has been in my collection for over a decade. It’s been seven years and a day since I last reviewed this band and when this one is done, I’ll still only be 60% of the way through their records. That’s why fifteen years into the CD Odyssey it is important to remember it is about the journey, not the destination.
Disc 1754 is…Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun
Artist: The Wooden Sky
Year of Release: 2012
What’s up with the Cover? The silhouettes of the band stand on a desolate and misty plain, the shades of old buildings casting their ghostly edifices looming over them.
As you can see from the smudge in the upper right corner, my copy of this disc is not “mint” – the victim of an ill-advised price tag choice on a cardboard cover. Let’s see the bright side and call this “patina”.
How I Came To Know It: This was my first Wooden Sky album, and I discovered it after reading a review and listening to the song “Child of the Valley” which is folk beauty at its finest.
How It Stacks Up: I have four Wooden Sky albums (and I parted company with a fifth after reviewing it). Of those five, “Every Child…” (I’m not typing the whole thing) comes in squarely in the middle at #3.
Rating: 3 stars but almost 4
I’ll just come out and say it – I overplayed this record when I got it. I had a lot less music back then and this one enraptured me to the point that I overdid it. Then I did the same with the other Wooden Sky albums I quickly gobbled up. I played this stuff to anyone who would listen, and spent many a day painting, walking or lazing about to these tunes.
“Every Child…” wasn’t even the best the band had to offer and that fact, plus all that overplay, means over the past several years it gets taken out for a spin much more infrequently than it deserves. For this reason, it was a welcome random event that brought me back together with this old friend.
If you don’t remember from my last review seven years ago, the Wooden Sky are a Canadian Indie folk band. An early example of a sound that has since taken off and split into a dozen sub-genres. If you read this blog often you’ll know I’ve chased down many of those later trails over the years, and it was comforting to return to this earlier example of the style.
“Every Child…” is the band’s third full length record, following after a couple of tour EPs that didn’t catch my attention. EPs are all the rage now with bands that want their singles out on streaming services before they’ve come up with a full record of material. I don’t like the trend, but kudos to the Wooden Sky for identifying it early.
Three records in, the band opts for a denser production. Their arrangements were always on the lush side for folk tunes, but they double down here with a lot of layers. It’s great for headphones as you can explore the songs from multiple angles. It is less good in a growly sportscar where all that nuanced sound goes – literally – out the window.
The band is a classic example of the whole being more than the sum of the parts, where none of the players feel the need to show off, happy to contribute to the overall vibe of each tune (bluegrass, it is not). The whole of it is anchored by the vocals of Gavin Gardiner, who has a sorrowful warble that suits the band’s style well.
That style is heavy with emotion, and on “Every Child…” they double down on themes of sadness and isolation. Songs like “The Night Goes On and On” and “It Gets Old to be Alone” exemplify the experience. The former has our narrator staring at the stars and feeling insignificant, and on the latter we’ve moved inside where the sense of isolation is even more profound. Here’s a sample:
“You hid your voice
behind some
Convoluted cry
I wrote your name across my arm
But you still won't come inside
It gets old
To be alone”
Later, on “Your Fight Will Not Be Long” we get reflections on the end-of-life illness which even after a hundred listens remains a hard listen.
The boys give true romance a try on “Take Me Out” an effort at a fifties crooner/slow dance tune that they warble up, Wooden Sky-style. It works well, and given the depressing tunes surrounding it, is a welcome balm that reminds us that deep down, these songs are less expressions of fear and doubt, and more romantic yearnings for connection.
There are places on the record where the band gets a bit too “Greg Keelor goes off” for my tastes, creating a wall of folk-noise that would have been better if they’d just relaxed into the melody a bit more. Overall, however, this is a solid record and one that helped open up a world of music for me to explore all those years ago.
Best tracks: Child of the Valley, Angelina, It Gets Old to Be Alone, Your Fight Will Not Be Long, The Night Goes On and On
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