The Wildwoods

Dear Meadowlark

 Self-released

The Nebraska folk-American trio The Wildwoods have released their fourth full-length album with Dear Meadowlark. Theirs is a pure, mostly acoustic sound that delivers warm harmonies and unpretentious songs that mostly pay homage to their home and their state. These are young musicians in their 20s that embrace the purity of song and find a balance between genuine folk and indie music. As the four albums suggest, this is group, though young, that has been together for some time, the core trio having started the band in middle school. Generally speaking, they have a Appalachian sound and without any clues, one would think they hail from Virginia or North Carolina, not Nebraska. Previous albums have songs that lead one in that direction such as “West Virginia Rain” and a cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” They have also garnered several prestigious songwriter awards and have built a reputation for engaging, let’s-not-take-ourselves-too-seriously live performances. On record, it’s as if you’ve invited them into your living room for a house concert. The intimacy is that prevailing.

Their teeming harmonies are evident on the opening title track, three voices without much musical accompaniment at all. But don’t be fooled, they are pickers too as typified in the mid-tempo toe tapper “Sweet Niobrara,” an ode to a village in Knox County, Nebraska. It features the guitar picking of Noah Gose, the harmonies and violin of his wife Chloe Gose, and longtime friend Andrew Vaggalis on upright bass. They all sing in stirring three-part harmony. As “Poster Child” you’ll detect more instruments from Benjamin Brodin on organ (also steel guitar), Samuel Stanley on cello, and Harrison Eldorado on drums and percussion.

“Poster Child” is about the restless nature of youth as adulthood looms. Remember all those posters you used to hang on the wall of your room during high school and college. The tune thrives on Chloe’s lead vocal and violin and with a bigger sound than some others as the organ and cello form a deep soundscape. Chloe steps forward again with her band mates in harmony in the folk-rocker “Hideaway,” a song that fits just as easily in the ‘60s era as it does now. We all need to find our inner peace, our quiet and happy place. Like “Sweet Niobrara,” “I Will Follow You to Willow,” imbued by Brodin’s steel guitar, is also about a town in their home state, in this case a community in Dawson County. This tracks stands among their best here in terms of swirling, stunning group harmonies. Fingerpicked guitar and soaring violin drive the pulsating bluegrass styled “Dear Stranger” while Chloe takes “Under the Rug” fits more the folk singer-songwriter vein, bathed in harmonies and sounding like a dressed up Peter, Paul, and Mary.

“I’m in Sandusky” has Noah in the lead in a tune that gallops along nicely. Presumably, like the other towns, Sandusky is in Nebraska, and not its more famous locale, Ohio. “Footprints on the Floor” is somewhat of an outlier, at least initially with it jagged rhythm as opposed to the smooth fare of the others, but it too redeems itself with terrific harmonies and stirring fiddle. Standout “Rabbit Hill” is lilting, with both a gorgeous melody and harmonies as well as beautiful blending of Noah’s acoustic with Brodin’s steel guitar. As the closer, the band added their standalone single, “Postcards from Somewhere,” a tune which leans to the folk side, not unlike their opening title track, making it a bookend of sorts.

This band is so talented at such a young age, it’s interesting to ponder how they might sound twenty years from now. In the meantime, we can likely expect prolific output.

– Jim Hynes

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