Tag: Dear Meadowlark

Comprising husband and wife guitarist and songwriter Noah and Chloe Gose on violin and lead vocals alongside best friend bassist Andrew Vaggalis, Dear Meadowlark is their fifth collection of breezy folk and Americana, steeped in the Nebraskan landscapes that backdrop their lives.

Their interweaving harmonies are showcased on album opener, the brief, unaccompanied ‘Meadowlark’, Chloe’s pure vocals soaring into the skies alongside its avian subject with its broken wings and metaphorical subtext (“Be kind to yourself and be strong…One day you’ll find your own song”). That gives way to the scampering guitar of ‘Sweet Niobrara’, which, titled for a small town at the confluence of the Niobrara and Missouri rivers, its name meaning “running water”? is a reflection of the peacefulness and simplicity found in the remote stretches of rural Nebraska (“Stopping for a Miller, dirty glasses from the farmers’ muddy hands/They’re cracking jokes across the bar, a day of working on their precious land/Near the end of harvest, the clouds, they roam like buffalo in the sky/A simple way of living, can sharpen up the dullest of knives”).

Joined by Sam Stanley on cello, Ben Brodin on organ and drummer Harrison Eldorado, ‘Poster Child’ is a mid-tempo swayer about how trying to fit in and meet others’ expectations can leave you feeling lost and worn out, the song a call to break free, be true to yourself and have the courage to follow your own path (“Jump in your car/Go somewhere far away/Turn the radio off, be alone in your thoughts/Hit the gas, pray to God you’ll never turn it around”).

Brodin again on keys, ‘Hideway’ with its three-part harmonies and violin is another lightly dancing folksy melody, the lyrics exploring themes of isolation, identity, the gulf between outward appearances and inner struggles and the disconnect that can divide people as we struggle with self-doubt and the need for validation (“Feel your pockets for the last of your needles and pins/Roam the hallways, racing thoughts and tireless limbs/Are you tired of the mess, that collects in your nest?/Is your head spinning off of the tracks?/And you’re blowing your horn cause you’ve run out of steam/Why’d you ever think that they had your back?”).

Following the same vocal set up and instrumentation and again referencing a Nebraskan community, here in Dawson County, the quietly anthemic ‘I Will Follow You To Willow’ with its imagery of fields, skies and winding roads, likewise addresses self-worth and standing by someone through their moments of doubt no matter where life leads (“Oh my dear, you’re just as lovely after oh so many years/All I’ve known is seeking comfort in the same old eyes and ears… grab a hat, a coat, and a dime for a souvenir/You must know, that I will comfort you in times of heavy tears”).

Another violin-accompanied number, the scampering rhythm of ‘Dear Stranger’ is contrasted by the images of flooding (“The levee’s down it has broken again/The town is underwater, all the roads have sunken in/Cemetery flowers have all washed away”), addiction (“I saw her yesterday/What a terrible lie to tell at all/Full of alcohol”), loss (“Is this what she wanted? To see a daughter full of pain?/And in the moment I could feel myself shrink/I’ll keep my eyes wide open and I’ll try to never blink/Or else I’ll miss you again/Leave behind the suffering/With a shot of gin”) and rescue (“Goodbye my dear stranger/I’ll miss my unknown savior”), the mention of Lee Street guessingly another Nebraskan reference though I suspect there’s deeper resonances to the song. Another with ambivalent lyrics, there’s a slightly jazzy feel to ‘Under The Rug’, a song about relationship anxiety (“I know you more than God above/So quit sweeping me under the rug/You know I’m afraid of what you’ll do or what you’ll say/I promise devotion/With no walls of emotion”).

Noah takes lead on the subsequent two numbers, first, moving out of state to the violin-led Ohio with ‘I’m In Sandusky’ and a call for emotional support in time of grief (“Some old friend called me on the phone/”I’m in Sandusky, feeling alone/My father’s dying and he needs me at home”) with the poignant line “I am too young to be saying goodbye”, though with the twist that they may have called the wrong number (“ I am afraid that you think I am not who you think I am/I’m trying to pay for bread and wine, but you can call me anytime”). Then, again with a mismatch between melody and content, there’s the fleetfooted folksy ‘Footprints On The Floor’ as it sinks into post-breakup depression (“I suppose I’m overthinking/I have been drinking on Monday afternoon…She rents a room up in my head, sifting through the drawers…won’t you tell me what you find?/Cause’ all that you have left behind, are footprints on the floor”) with the wry addition of “Are you still angry bout’ the broken coffee maker?”.

It officially ends with the longest cut at just over five-minutes, the slow walking ‘Rabbit Hill’ (the location eludes me) and, fuelled by the fire of music (“Saved by the rolling chorus/Straw in the jaw, she heard the choir of angels call”), a return to themes of escape and finding your own path (“Stumbles out her window, pulls on a pair of boots/The dust inside her lungs has gone and turned this woman loose/A hickory stick, hobblin’ up the gravel road/Smokin’ from her chimney, there’s fire between her toes… searching for fruition in the seeds of the USA”).

Included as bonus cut is last year’s dreamily swaying single ‘Postcards From Somewhere’ which, Noah playing caressing slide and the couple sharing vocals, draws on the lure of the journey and the call of home and, as Robert Browning had it, about sending home thoughts from abroad (“I’ll send you a drawing of the places I go/Wherever I’ll be, you’ll always know/Whenever you’re down, I’ll be around/You’re the part of me that aches to be found”).

Melodically infectious and played from the heart and soul, Dear Meadowlark is timeless contemporary American folk music.

Mike Davies

Artists’ website www.thewildwoodsband.com

‘Sweet Niobara’ – live session: