Willie Nelson, M. Ward, Wilco, Johnny Cash, Neko Case, Martha Wainwright, Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris, Samuel Stiles, Casey Meehan, Ben Clarke, David Vandervelde, Andrew Bird, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Nick Cave, Elliott Smith, Lying In States, Neil Young, Okkervil River, Benjamin Wagner, The Notes and Scratches, Cellar Steps, Papa M, Richard Buckner, Yo La Tengo
Best I can figure, Andy Wagner must love bad weather. His third record, Those Who Forgive, is a complex meteorolgy of bedroom tsunamis, drunk midnight thunder and unexpected frosts. I imagine him green-screened in front of a map of a seriously busted heart, gesturing at the cold front moving in and explaining that it is only going to get worse. And he is smiling, somehow. These songs take a kind of delight, that is neither cynical nor ironic, in reporting the daily sadnesses we endure, the sadnesses that remind us we are, in fact, truly alive.
Recorded in a week with Matt Dewine at Pieholden Studios in Rantoul, IL, it is only appropriate that this record was made in tornado country. This time out, Wagner whipped up a band, tracked almost everything live, and whirl-winded, on the strength of Ben Clarke's bass and Matt Martin's drums, this collection of songs into being. Songs like "Sending My Love" that range from blustery rock to quiet drizzled ballads in "My Blue Sea," from gale force to a storm's eye respite; all story-told with detailed immediacy. Like a field reporter at a hurricane site, Wagner makes poetic the particulars of being lashed by the elements.
Angry lovers and desperate loners populate this Midwestern weather map, sharing a flashlight in the cellar with Wilco, Calexico and Gram Parsons. There is a timelessness to Wagner's music, it sounds so current and somehow half-remembered. But Those Who Forgive fits perfectly into his discography, following Horse Year's energy and Departures quiet ballads, this new record marries his impulses in a perfect storm.
Hello Andy! nice to meet you here on myspace. Your music is awesome! Would love to catch you playing a show sometime. Blessings your way today and forever,your friend jimmy
