Nels Andrews – Pigeon & the Crow
Self Released – 10 April 2020
One of my favourite ever albums is Midlake’s 2006 masterpiece, The Trials of Van Occupanther. Besides being memorably melodic, as a complete body of work, its lyrics dwell within a mysterious, seemingly rural elsewhere in place and time. With that recording, they truly created a world for listeners to explore. Although I can smugly boast to recognising the fact before the band admitted it, a big influence on that record was another personal favourite, Jimmie Spheeris’ shamefully overlooked 1971 debut, Isle of View, an album of sublime folk-rock featuring the same brand of mystical lyrical imagery. I’ll hazard a guess that, like Spheeris and Midlake’s Tim Smith before him (interviewed here on Folk Radio), the Santa Cruz-based Nels Andrews is another such logophile, ever-seeking new jargon with which to express himself. This approach is clearly illustrated in the enigmatic wordplay of Andrews’ beautiful 4th album, Pigeon and the Crow, a creation possessing many of the same qualities as those wonderful Midlake and Spheeris records. Fortunately, I have been party to Andrews’ explanations of the personal stories inspiring each song of this release, yet, had I not, within the aureate cryptic verses I’d have still found plenty to please me.
I may be a writer, but (not that I’m a total philistine) there are times when poetry as an art form is lost on me. I can find even the acknowledged greats hard going, and unfailingly give a wide berth to movie adaptations of Shakespeare. However, I can relate to poetry – or, to be concise, to colourful, imaginative, and flowery language – so much easier when it is delivered in the form of song. Meanings or themes may remain veiled or ambiguous, but if the rhythm of delivery meets the melody head-on, I’m all over it. Pigeon and the Crow is exactly the kind of album that I can appreciate in this particular way.
Largely restrained, delicate arrangements are here populated with hypnotic Andrews wordsmithery that, while it’s not always apparent what’s occurring therein, is vividly expressed. For example, from the lead track, Scrimshaw (also the title of Andrews’ 3rd album):
When first I hitched westward with hypnotic visions / I stopped in Sedona for mystic provisions / And the wafer I bought in the mission had me talking to God / But 10,000 midnights, they make crow-footed canyons / That sort of scrimshaw comes from not landing / The twist of the cypress, that’s a memory of the wind
Otherwise, as in Eastern Poison Oak, the narrative is decidedly less opaque and, in this instance, brushed with dusty nostalgia:
When I drift towards the rumble strip / I think of Alvin’s guitar and old 45’s / Talismans of his youth that he pawned every June / And bought back each November
Recorded at Lord Huron’s Whispering Pines studio in Los Angeles, the whole of Pigeon and the Crow is chockablock with the kind of absorbing lyricism above, related in Andrews’ warm vocal tone and set in a Celtic-seasoned sonic framework. Produced by Irish flautist Nuala Kennedy (Will Oldham / Oliver Schroer / Kris Drever), the album’s tempo never breaks sweat above a stroll, staying steadfastly on course within its pretty, gentle folk-rock landscape.
Kennedy’s flute, Marla Fibish’s mandolin and champion fiddler Shane Cook, in particular, keep the sound earthily rooted in pure folk territory, but courtesy of Chris Wabich’s steel drums there is the briefest departure from the form in the mildly calypso-flavoured South of San Gregorio. Wabich’s CV includes work with Leonard Cohen, Kevin Ayers, Sting and many more, and is typical of the calibre of musician(s) assembled to create this laidback affair. When you can call upon talent such as Anaïs Mitchell, Anthony Da Costa and A.J. Roach (who co-wrote two songs) simply to provide backing vocals here and there, you’re onto a winner and, in its field of literary folk music, a winner Pigeon and the Crow certainly is.
Read more about the video above n our recent premiere here.
Pre-Order via Bandcamp (Digital | Vinyl | Book Flexi Disc | CD): https://nelsandrews.bandcamp.com/album/pigeon-and-the-crow-2
Photo Credit: Bradley Cox