Музыка и песни Wooden Wand / Wooden Wand

Artist: Wooden Wand Label: Fire Records

Following the critically acclaimed Blood Oaths of the New Blues, songwriter James Jackson Toth returns with a cycle of intimate and raw songs, recorded along his travels. Bringing in like-minded musicians like guitar virtuoso William Tyler and collaborator Darin Gray, Toth wraps his expert wordplay around some of his finest songs to date, including the instant classic "Dambuilding". For his new album "Farmer's Corner" Toth a.k.a WOODEN WAND decided to try something different: instead of spending a week in a studio with the same people, the same engineer, the same equipment and the same state of mind, he would record in fits and starts, whenever - and whereever - he felt like it, recording new songs as he wrote them. Over six sessions in four studios spanning three states, he began amassing tracks. Toth then chose his favourite songs for "Farmer's Corner", which is, remarkably, the very first self-produced WOODEN WAND album. Abetted on the majority of the tracks by electric bassist Darin Gray (On Fillmore, Jim O'Rourke, Grand Ulena, Dazzling Killmen), and guitarists William Tyler (Lambchop, Silver Jews, Yo La Tengo) and Doc Feldman. Toth also called on friends in St Louis, Nashville, and his current home in Lexington, KY to produce an album that splits the difference between the protracted psych of his work with the Vanishing Voice and the World War IV and the more lonesome, bucolic styles of his more recent albums with Michael Gira and the Briarwood Virgins. The result is the most "WOODEN WAND" album in the WOODEN WAND discography, reflecting Toth's omnivorous musical and narrative obsessions. the arrangements - think Little Feat covering Harvest Moon - only serve to highlight his capabilities as both a songwriter and storyteller. The collected songs form an easy entry into the ever-growing Toth output, where outlaws on the run, epic landscapes, endless travels, agitated insomniacs and ditch-digging memory-evaders lurk behind every turn. Style: Independent

When James Jackson Toth, aka Wooden Wand, was invited to record for a split 7 with his friend Duquette Johnston (formerly of Verbena) and his band the Gum Creek Killers for release on the Communicating Vessels label, his first impulse was to send a track Style: Independent

When James Jackson Toth, aka Wooden Wand, was invited to record for a split 7 with his friend Duquette Johnston (formerly of Verbena) and his band the Gum Creek Killers for release on the Communicating Vessels label, his first impulse was to send a track Style: Independent

Fire Records are releasing a double disc edition of Wooden Wand's critically acclaimed "Briarwood" album, including 8 stripped down demo versions of the James Jackson Toths penned album tracks. Here's what James Jackson Toth says about the recordings: "The demos are the grimoire -- there is a corresponding demo for every song I have ever released. I've been cursed with a bad memory, so if I do not make a demo of a song, I will forget it. I rarely remember the chords, and I usually require a little help from more musicianly band members to jog my memory. Demos are likewise invaluable before recording any new Wooden Wand album; I will listen to them constantly so as to exactly replicate - or dramatically change - my phrasing on any given song. Style: Independent

Record Label: 5Rue Christine

NPR.org, July 10, 2007 · It's easy for a band to sound 'rootsy' by simply unplugging the instruments and singing in a manner that's folksy and earnest. It's a little harder to tap into the dark, cryptic, desolate-cornfield aspect of American music, but Wo Record Label: Ecstatic Peace Style: Independent

James Jackson Toth - AKA Wooden Wand - retreated back to Alabama to record this spooky, heady album that demands close attention. This is music for quiet reflection and shares a worldview more in line with noise and doom metal artists than it does summer of love casualties and beach burnouts. Every Wooden Wand album trounces expectations, and Blood Oaths Of The New Blues, thankfully, doesn't break that trend. It doesn't contain a single guitar solo, snare hit, or country affectation. Harmonium, organ and disembodied vocals are the order of the day here, with back-masking and subliminal messages added to enhance the trip. Like spiritual cousins Nico's Desertshore, Peter Hammil's A Black Box, or Dino Valente's s/t solo album, Blood Oaths Of The New Blues represents a break with the past with an eye on an uncertain future, and is the boldest, most adventurous and most intensely personal album of Toth's long career. The new focus on texture and sonic space does not, however, come at the expense of Toth's inimitable lyrical style. For proof, see the "alt couple" travelogue of "Outsider Blues," the menacing firsthand account of the real-life Doherty Gang's crime spree in "Southern Colorado Song," or the suicidal yearnings of the protagonist seeking to drown himself in "Supermoon (The Sounding Line)." Elsewhere, Toth evokes the weary spirits of state-executed men and women in "Dungeon Of Irons," pays tribute to one of his musical heroes in "Jhonn Balance," and even glimpses, for a moment, a sort of hope, via the sweet love song "No Debts." Warring factions on each side of Wooden Wand's generally eclectic fanbase can finally call a cease fire - this is the first Wooden Wand album that should equally satisfy both the fans of Toth's acerbic rambler narratives as well as older fans who miss losing themselves in the fried, psychedelic atmospheres of albums like Buck Dharma and Harem Of the Sundrum & The Witness Figg. The album also features the best vocal performances of Toth's career. Style: Indie Rock

James Jackson Toth - AKA Wooden Wand - retreated back to Alabama to record this spooky, heady album that demands close attention. This is music for quiet reflection and shares a worldview more in line with noise and doom metal artists than it does summer of love casualties and beach burnouts. Every Wooden Wand album trounces expectations, and Blood Oaths Of The New Blues, thankfully, doesn't break that trend. It doesn't contain a single guitar solo, snare hit, or country affectation. Harmonium, organ and disembodied vocals are the order of the day here, with back-masking and subliminal messages added to enhance the trip. Like spiritual cousins Nico's Desertshore, Peter Hammil's A Black Box, or Dino Valente's s/t solo album, Blood Oaths Of The New Blues represents a break with the past with an eye on an uncertain future, and is the boldest, most adventurous and most intensely personal album of Toth's long career. The new focus on texture and sonic space does not, however, come at the expense of Toth's inimitable lyrical style. For proof, see the "alt couple" travelogue of "Outsider Blues," the menacing firsthand account of the real-life Doherty Gang's crime spree in "Southern Colorado Song," or the suicidal yearnings of the protagonist seeking to drown himself in "Supermoon (The Sounding Line)." Elsewhere, Toth evokes the weary spirits of state-executed men and women in "Dungeon Of Irons," pays tribute to one of his musical heroes in "Jhonn Balance," and even glimpses, for a moment, a sort of hope, via the sweet love song "No Debts." Warring factions on each side of Wooden Wand's generally eclectic fanbase can finally call a cease fire - this is the first Wooden Wand album that should equally satisfy both the fans of Toth's acerbic rambler narratives as well as older fans who miss losing themselves in the fried, psychedelic atmospheres of albums like Buck Dharma and Harem Of the Sundrum & The Witness Figg. The album also features the best vocal performances of Toth's career. Style: Indie Rock