BTV062 Wovenhand : Consider the Birds LP

Wovenhand
“Consider the Birds” (btv062)
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Track listing:
1 Sparrow Falls
2 Bleary Eyed Duty
3 To Make A Ring
4 Off the Cuff
5 Chest of Drawers
6 Oil on Panel
7 The Speaking Hands
8 Down in Yon Forest
9 Tin Finger
10 Into the Piano
Whether fronting seminal Denver band 16 Horsepower or venturing off on his own with Wovenhand, David Eugene Edwards’ voice is unmistakable. Haunting and even abrasive, there is rarely a dull moment to be found when Edwards is behind the pulpit. Diverse in style and delivery, his music is never easy to corner. His latest album under the Wovenhand moniker, Consider The Birds, is no exception. Past influences run the gamut of the bluegrass/folk spectrum. Reviewers like to name-drop Nick Cave & Tom Waits, and have tossed out words like gothic, Americana and even alt-country. In the final analysis, though, no easy tag can be applied to this artist.

Six of the album’s ten songs feature Edwards solo, with little more than his fervent voice carrying the tune. Ordy Garrison (drums), Daniel McMahon (piano) and Shane Trost (bass) fill out the sound on the remaining four tracks. The album was put to tape by Robert Ferbrache, a one-time lap-steel player in 16 HP who runs Absinthe Studios. As we’ve come to expect, it’s impossible to not be confronted by Edwards’ lyrics, which, in the southern literary tradition of Flannery O’Conner or William Faulkner, are saturated with Biblical allusions. The grandson of a fire-and-brimstone preacher, Edwards channels that old-fashioned tent revival spirit well.