Wren & Wilde – Serial Dreamers
This is a shining example of a peculiar set that has exceptional color in each song. Cleverly, there’s not enough country seeds to blossom in that genre alone, & it isn’t planted in a folky soil deep enough to get a rootsy outgrowth. But if you fibrillate those two musical ancestries together, you get the dazzling sound of Minnesota’s Wren & Wilde with their imagery, good stories, captivating melodies & a facility for keeping everything spirited. Even the slower tunes are bracingly smart music.
Produced by Christopher Furst (electric, Resonator & baritone guitars/banjo/keys/percussion/ Glockenspiel) this suave 12-track debut Serial Dreamers (Dropped Oct 7/Independent/50:38) starts with a gentle vocal charm & slowly builds into a solid propulsion of sound dressed in thin banjo threads but supported by a waterfall of sound. “Gitchi Gami” is a slick introduction to the pristine folky vocals of songwriter Hilary Yoder (acoustic guitar/piano) & vocalist Bethany Olivares. The surface sound is popish but listen closer, their duality & allure drifts distinctively from the speakers.
With track 2 “The Ring,” with satiny fiddle, vocals & harmonies the production captures their satisfying groove in waves of good singing & rhythm. Each track has an ounce of country & “Caverns” even comes across as a song Dolly Parton may have written. It comes around again with the vocals in “Dog Days” with a Parton spurt of enthusiastic steam. Quite good. Both songs have wonderful arrangements; a warm potent lure all done with skill. The interplay between instruments is clear, & the ladies blend their voices as perfectly as honey goes into tea.
The themes are a mixed bag of contrasts between heartache & hope that explore love, parenthood, self-identity with a sprinkling of heartland tenor & finding your way back. The songs never hover too close to mainstream generics or commercial confection. Ms. Yoder manages expertly to write songs that bypass the ears & shuffle their way directly into the heart. She describes her music clearly as “smoke folk” – I like that. A mix of Southern gothic, vintage country & Laurel Canyon-era singer-songwriter. Yes, on all accounts. I agree. Which suggests Hilary knows exactly what she’s doing – her influences are quite widespread & condensed into musical genres rather than mere artists as individuals.
Some tunes touch upon the McGarrigle Sisters, (Hilary’s “Serial Dreamers”), some of the Roches (their “Hammond Song”). Wren & Wilde prefer to keep their repertoire at an even-keel. Think Abba-rich voices in a folkier realm seasoned with country spice. Their duo-exuberance & originality sets them apart from others.
Highlights – “Gitchi Gami,” “The Ring,” “Caverns,” “Dog Days,” “I’m Still Her,” “Heartstrings,” “Slow Living” & “Serial Dreamers.”
Musicians – Corey Yoder (drums/percussion), Mitch Jones (bass), Andre De Sautel (electric guitar) with Haley E. Rydell & Tammy Rogers King (fiddles), Caitlin Benson (cello), Dustin Smith (mandolin) & Atom Schmitt (pedal steel).
Color image courtesy of their website. CD @ https://wrenandwildeband.com/