CD Odyssey Disc 1758: The Wooden Sky

After not rolling a Wooden Sky album in over a decade, this is my second one in the last five reviews. That’s random for you.

Some readers have asked how I do “random”. It is accomplished with percentile dice to pick a section of my music collection (I have it all divided into sections of roughly 50). Once I’ve rolled a section, I roll again to select a single album from it. If I’ve already reviewed that one, I randomly go left or right until I find an unreviewed record.

So…there you go. Now on with the content!

Disc 1758 is…. When Lost at Sea

Artist: The Wooden Sky

Year of Release: 2008

What’s up with the Cover? This graphic depicts either a murder or a very unsafe method of ice fishing. At least everyone involved wore a winter coat.

How I Came To Know It: I just told this story five albums ago, but to reiterate, I got into the Wooden Sky through their 2012 album, “Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun”. “When Lost at Sea” was the result of me digging through their back catalogue once I was hooked.

Speaking of hooks, that’s what those guys on the cover need to be using if they want to catch a fish. That pole’s not going to catch a fish unless they tie a hook and a line to the end of it and stop poking their buddy in the stomach.

How It Stacks Up: I have four Wooden Sky albums, and I parted way with a fifth. Of those five albums, “When Lost At Sea” comes in at #1, just edging out the last album I have by the Wooden Sky that remains unreviewed and which…I’ll talk about when I roll it.

Ratings: 5 stars

The Wooden Sky have given the world plenty of fine indie folk records over the years, but the finest of all remains their first. “When Lost at Sea” was a revelation when I heard it. Fresh off of listening to “Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun” and pleasantly thinking that it was as good as it gets, along came the band’s debut to show me what true excellence looks like.

Note that by “excellence” I don’t mean an uplifting collection of happy, inspiring songs. “When Lost at Sea” is a dark and brooding record, full of murder, poverty and despair. It just explores those themes in the most inspiring way possible.

The record has a slow inexorability to its dirges which is surprisingly beautiful. A slow dance around the room at the Masque of the Red Death. It’s a party that you know is going to end poorly, but the music is so exquisite you willingly walk the dark path before you.

It starts with the vocals of Gavin Gardiner who has a natural hurt to everything he sings. His strangled and angst-ridden delivery would be well suited to rock and roll and gives that edge to these songs even though in their bones, they are folk. The crossover works partly because Gardiner has one foot planted so evenly in each tradition.

The band adds in a bit of general clangor that would suit a nineties rock song, but they never let the noise overtake the melody, and most of the songs have clever hooks that are hard to single out, nestled as they are in the overall structure of the song. These are hooks that serve the structure of the story being told and not just there to make you tap your foot.

Lyrically, the record has some fine poetry. Their eponymous song starts with this ominous bit of foreshadowing:

“I dreamt last night that you were making love
To a bird you swore you'd given up
Oh how I woke up shaking.
The wolves kept watch on the wind outside
And I kept my eyes towards a wooden sky
There would be no escaping.”

The characters on the record are well drawn throughout, and most share the grim fatalism you see expressed above. It is a dreary but undeniable beauty.

It is hard to pick a favourite song on the record, but “Darker Streets Than Mine” could be it. It features not just the depth of sadness following love lost, but the aimless ambitionless quality that often comes with it:

“So I got up and I got drunk
And then I got down on my luck
Ever since you left me I've been swinging
From a tree high above
Where I've been looking down on love
It's been a long time since we talked but I ain't changed
And as much as I ain't changed I'm not the same”

The album ranges back and forth between a lush production where the instruments soar with impotent but poetic rage, and sparse guitar/vocal songs which draw you into the introspective side of sadness. No less tragic, just rolled into a smaller, quieter space. It is one of these, “The Lonesome Death of Helen Betty Osborne” that closes out the record, trailing off into a gloomy reverie that provides the perfect end to a perfect record.

I’ve heard this record countless times, having overplayed the hell out of it when I first bought it. A decade later returning to it was easy and welcome, and it quickly had me wrapped in its gloomy and thought provoking-world as if I’d never left. A classic.

Best tracks:  All tracks

CD Odyssey Disc 1754: The Wooden Sky

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

CD Odyssey Disc 1034: The Wooden Sky

I’m having one of those weeks where I feel like I’ve got too much going on all at the same time. However, I’ve been stealing moments wherever I can to listen to music (I spent part of Sunday enjoying the Drive-By Truckers’ album “Dirty South”. Along the way, I was able to sneak in this next review as well.

Disc 1034 is…Swimming in Strange Waters

Artist: The Wooden Sky

Year of Release: 2017

What’s up with the Cover? A drawing by KathrynMacnaughton. I can’t say I like it too much – I guess I’m a bit more literal with my art. Maybe there’s just too much going on – kind of like this album.

How I Came To Know It: I am a fan, so this was just me buying the new Wooden Sky album when it came out and hoping for the best. I really need to stop doing this.

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Wooden Sky albums, which is all their full length studio efforts, as far as I know. Of those five, I must reluctantly put “Swimming in Strange Waters” in fifth (aka last).

Ratings: 2 stars

I really love the Wooden Sky, and since discovering them in 2012 every album I’ve drilled into their back catalogue and forward into their new releases with equal joy. When I saw them live in 2014 it was one of the best shows I've ever seen.

Because of those high expectations, “Swimming in Strange Waters” ended up being a disappointment. It isn’t terrible, but it is a slight departure for their sound, adopting a more sonic-wall rock sound building the stronger rock edge they developed on 2014’s “Let’s Be Ready” over their former balance between indie folk and rock. Like a long-time customer to a coffee shop that changes its beans, I found myself wishing they’d stuck with the old brew. Or when you go to buy the doughnut of the month, but they’ve switched from that awesome roasted pineapple and coconut one to some trendy salted caramel thing.

Indie music really lends itself to metaphors about hipster coffee shops. But I digress…

What I’m saying is this record has a lot going on musically. The melodies are awash in a host of pings, whines and various percussive experiments designed to give you layers to explore. The album’s title is the best metaphor here, where the sound feels immersive and diffuse and also a little bit weird. I usually love weird, but here it just felt like at the recording studio one person after another said “And then we could add this! And then this!” and no one said no.

The first two tracks left me pretty alienated, but when “You’re Not Alone” came on next it had a promising start that made me think things were going to turn around. Regrettably, rather than sticking to the rolling melody and Gavin Gardiner’s evocative rock/folk voice, the song is loaded with extra production. Strings are played and plucked and organ drones, all of it drowning a song that would have been better presented with less.

“Deadhorse Creek” starts with a fine cross between rockabilly and southern rock but descends midway through into a bit of clangor that indie music is all too willing to descend to (note to indie rockers: don’t beat the melody into submission, resolve it. The song recovers its narrative by the end, but by then I was grumpy with all the crashing.

It isn’t until the end of Side A that I was finally rewarded with the haunting beauty of “Born to Die.” I’m not sure what this song is about, but it is something terrible and cold and strangely compelling. Imagery of blood in the snow that makes you shiver, and the lights of justice flashing. “Born to Die” is Gardiner at his best as a songwriter, aided ably by a simple acoustic guitar that winds its way hesitantly through the song’s imagery like a partially frozen stream meandering across a field.

Although more on the rock side of their sound, “Black Gold” is also solid with a drum beat that feels a little military, and again that southern rock vibe that was a welcome surprise from a Toronto band.

Unfortunately, standouts like “Born to Die” and “Black Gold” felt too few and far between to redeem a record that has solid bones, but drowns at times in its own busyness.

I’m tempted to keep this one for a while because I’m a fan of the Wooden Sky (and I would go see them live again in a heartbeat) but space is of a premium, so unless it is saved by Sheila, it is getting passed on to a home that will love it more than I can.

Best tracks: Born to Die, Black Gold

CD Odyssey Disc 669: The Wooden Sky

My apologies for the delay in getting this next review done – it was a new album so I wanted to be sure I gave it a lot of consecutive listens before I said anything about it. I also went to see the band live on Monday, so after I review the studio album, I’ll review their show as well. A Creative Maelstrom: Your One-Stop Music Review Shop!

Disc 669 is…. Let’s Be Ready

Artist: The Wooden Sky

Year of Release: 2014

What’s up with the Cover? Based on the street sign (Dundas Street W), this looks like somewhere in Toronto. It is interesting what people think needs to be on their business sign to draw customers. These guys appear to be advertising “Tina”, “Coffee” and “Breakfast” are for sale, based on their big yellow sign. A smaller red sign below indicates you can get “Hot Food Sandwich Etc.” Good to know the sandwich is not only hot, but will also consist of food. As for the “etc.” I assume that’s Tina again.

Joking aside, this is just the sort of unassuming hole-in-the-wall that often makes great diner food. If I’m ever wandering down Dundas Street W I’ll keep an eye out for it.

How I Came To Know It:  When looking for new music ideas, I often pick the brain of servers or store clerks or pretty much anyone I run into that looks like they have something going on behind the eyes.

A few years ago, I was getting breakfast at my own local diner, Floyd’s. Our server suggested The Cave Singers and The Wooden Sky. She even wrote them both down, but I put the note in my wallet and promptly forgot it was in there. I didn’t find it until a little over a year ago when I was changing wallets and found the scrap of paper.

I checked both bands out. The Cave Singers didn’t grab me, but I had an instant connection with the Wooden Sky. I went out and bought one of their albums, and not long after I bought another two. When “Let’s Be Ready” came out I was already a wholesale convert, and bought it immediately..

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Wooden Sky albums, which I believe is all of their main studio albums. I like them all. “Let’s Be Ready” is probably tied for third.

Rating:  4 stars

The Wooden Sky’s fourth album has the band showing a slightly more rock edge to their sound, without losing sight of the starkly honest lyrics and clever melodies that made them so good to begin with. Four albums in, this band hasn’t made a bad step yet.

The Wooden Sky is a Canadian band through and through and their home-country influences shine through strong. They are like a latter day Blue Rodeo, and it is hard to hear them and not imagine them growing up listening to Jim Cuddy, Greg Keelor and the boys. Five years and four albums in, it isn’t overstating it to say the Wooden Sky has shown they are worthy inheritors – equals even – of the seminal bands like Blue Rodeo that came before them.

The uniquely compelling vocals of lead singer Gavin Gardiner are a big part of the band’s sound. Gardiner has a subtly surprising range, and an ability to put the hurt into every note. He sings like he means it, and he has a fresh phrasing to his vocals that shouldn’t work but does. On “Let’s Be Ready” there are places where he strays slightly into overly affected territory, but he always pulls it back before it becomes a problem.

When the album is jumping it has a good energy, and the opening track “Saturday Night” gets things rolling with a bang. It is a party song wrapped around what it’s like to feel estranged from the party experience. This musical device of taking a frenetic upbeat song and undercutting it with disconnected lyrics is standard business in modern indie pop, but I’ll give the Wooden Sky kudos for doing it well.

The album has a good atmospheric quality on up-tempo tracks like “Maybe It’s No Secret” and “When the Day is Fresh and the Light is New” (which needs a shorter title) and these are good songs, but not my favourites.

Call me maudlin, but I’m happiest when the Wooden Sky drag me down a bit and let me wallow. “Kansas City” and the title track “Let’s Be Ready” are two of the best mournful parting songs I’ve heard. “Kansas City” is from the perspective of the person leaving, knowing at some level he’s a fool for doing so. When the music swells and Gardiner sings:

“The road rose up to meet us, a tangled mess of yellow lines.

Though I should’ve seen it coming I just couldn’t stop in time.

I had to move, sometimes I wonder what I’m gonna do.”

You feel the wanderlust of someone losing one dream in search of another.

“Let’s Be Ready” is the opposite side of the same experience; knowing your lover has to go, and having to let them go, wondering why you are ending up second to their dreams. Turnaround is fair play, and the Wooden Sky is hip to that vibe. This song, which is just voice and acoustic guitar really lets the melody shine. When Gardiner climbs up to the top of his register and sings “Lover take these arms and build us a boat” his voice captures the helpless surrender of the heart when another person’s happiness comes before yours. It may feel right, but it doesn’t feel good.

“Write Them Down” feels even less good, but it is my favourite song on the album, and I think Gardiner’s best vocal effort as well. It hits you like a confession, an empty plea for things to work out, when you know it won’t. On my first listen, it had me inexplicably thinking about my cat Inigo, who I lost not long ago. I’m pretty certain it isn’t about losing a pet, but with lines like “Leave a doorway to the past/and try to make a good thing last” it hit me in a tender spot that has a long way to go from healing over.

The final track on the album, “Don’t You Worry About a Thing” is destined to be a sing-a-long classic for years to come. Another song with an ironic title (o how these hipsters love their irony) it is a delicious irony. Life sucks, but there’s an acceptance.

One thing that doesn’t suck is this record. I gave it five listens in a row, and it got better on every listen. I can’t wait for their next one.

Best tracks:   Saturday Night, Baby Hold On, Kansas City, Write This Down, Let’s Be Ready, Don’t Worry About a Thing

The Concert – September 30, 2014 at Distrikt (sic) Nightclub, Victoria

I was nervous about this show. I had recently seen a similar band (Deep Dark Woods) at a similar club-style venue (Upstairs Lounge) and the sound had been dense as mud.

It turns out I had no reason for concern – The Wooden Sky were crystal clear and perfect throughout. They were a bit crowded on the small stage, and the view wasn’t great but it didn’t affect their playing at all, which was excellent.

My last concert was Steve Earle’s “Low Highway” tour and my friend Casey made a good observation that lead singer Gardiner has a bit of young Steve in him. He jumps to the mike with an energy driven by the song, and then retreats back under his hair, like he’s simultaneously driven to perform, and shy to show too much of himself.

Song selection was just right, with about half the concert being songs from the new album and the other half some of my favourites from their earlier albums. I have no idea what their ‘hits’ would be from long-attending fans so it was nice to find that a lot of the songs that I think are their standouts were the songs they played.

The band keeps the chit-chat down and lets the music speak for itself, but when they do interact there’s a genuine warmth and appreciation that all these folks have come out to see them play.

The venue was “Distrikt,” a bar that on the weekend has long been a bit of pick-up joint for the short-skirt/muscle shirt crowd. I won’t judge, since I went there a few times in my early twenties. Back then it was called “the Forge” and since then it has had a half-dozen other incarnations. It hasn’t changed much over the years, but the seat cushions seemed new and it was generally clean. They could have done with some servers, but the bartenders were affable when I finally got off my ass and sought them out.

The audience was very young (compared to me) and for the most part seemed to be there to genuinely see the band, which was nice. There was a bit of murmuring chatter during the encore I didn’t appreciate, but it was pretty muted compared to some bar concerts I’ve been to.

Whatever the case, the Wooden Sky had drawn me in from the first song and never lost me. The worst part was when they stopped playing. If they come again, I’d get a ticket in a heartbeat, and you should to.