MorningBird’s Echoes In The Meadow drinks from the unassuming northern Minnesota Lake Itasca trickle, which, once given momentum, pulses into the Mississippi River Americana mythical artery. Years ago, while on a necessary pilgrimage to these Big Muddy headwaters, I found myself smack dab in the middle of nowhere. There was a small tourist hut with an old-fashioned slide show. My English setter, Ivy, out of canine boredom, snapped at flies that coursed the humid air. Even today, the memory begs for less sepia in the well-water-sourced drinking fountain. But that’s the beauty of America off the map: Amid any common vote and equally common geography, there’s always something with a quiet profundity.
And that’s this album’s cornmeal fried okra gist: It snaps at big flies and sings a melodic song in the humid air of dirt road Americana gothic mysticism.
The traditional song, ‘Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Buring’, begins the slideshow. The tune is gospel honest with Rob Wheeler and Jill Burkes sharing lead vocals. Jill’s violin slices wholewheat bread, an acoustic guitar churns melodic continuous butter, and Josh Palmi’s stand-up bass pulses with Mississippi River twain-marked time.
The same is true for ‘Thunder’, with blessed vocals, a bit of mandolin, and effective weather-echoed percussion.
‘Birds And Bees’ continues with an up-tempo Jill vocal that begs for any dancefloor quickstep approval.
Then things get delightfully weird with an almost reggae harmonica headwater sourced graveyard strutted ‘Reefer’.
As a reference, Echoes In The Meadow rides the same rails as the brilliant Dave Rawlings (and Gillian Welch) Machine.
That said, the folk music continues. With another Jill vocal, ‘Nights In July’ catches that common vote (and equally common geography!) that’s always part of quiet profundity. Ditto for the folk blues of ‘Cold Heart’, with its urgent tightrope acoustic guitar touch. Then, ‘The Wind’ is even better, with its dreamy dustbowl gospel truth and tough wisdom.
There’s more traditional stuff. The instrumental ‘Swallowtail’ skips an Appalachian stone across watery history and conjures the jagged fiddle jig of an Irish folk tune, that, indeed, cuts a “Mush-a ring dum a do dum a da”, dance step that makes it hard to keep that “whiskey in a jar”. It’s a nice change of pace. And, the (ironically!) joyous ‘Dig A Hole In The Meadow (Darlin Cory)’ is an infectious tune smithing, and (sort of) serves as a synopsis for all those big tomes that try to explain convoluted American frontier history.
The bouncy ‘Time For A Change’ is clever, catchy, and perhaps, obvious. Sometimes, folk music has to be that, too.
The final song reprises ‘Thunder’, with an acoustic and caustic prayer to those pilgrimage moments smack dab in the middle of nowhere, where America is off the grid, with anyone’s dog snapping at flies, amid any common vote and equally common geography, where there’s always something to be heard with a huge expectant trickle and always quiet cornmeal fried okra profundity.
Bill Golembeski
Artists’ website: https://morningbirdsings.com/
‘Birds And Bees’ – live:
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