The Wooden Sky

The third album from Indie spirited Canadian country-folk quintet The Wooden Sky, 'Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun' sees them develop their more textured and layered sound. The evolutionary transformations since the band's last album, 'If I Don't Come Home You'll Know I'm Gone', are more subtle than revolutionary. Gavin Gardiner's warm, deep and comforting vocal still sits astride each song with a surety and authority as the score builds and breaks below.

The mainstays of their sound, folk and country are still the fundamental foundations on which the album are built, but there are notable exceptions. 'Angelina' may not be traditional Nashville fair but its zip code is definitely within walking distance. Each note, from the twang of the guitar to the more drawn out 'lazy' vocal style, pays homage to one of the pillars of American popular music. 'Your Fight Will Not Be Long', a more paired back, emotional tale, pulls on a more folk oriented thread, tugging at you with its intimacy and honesty. "When the Doctor came to see us, said your fight will not be long, and though it pains me so to say it, seldom that I'm wrong."

The opener 'Child Of The Valley' is more of a potent piece, mixing up its gentle piano, acoustic guitars and soaring harmonies with passages seemingly derived from Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. 'Take Me Out', however, is somewhere completely different on the musical spectrum. Here we get a Greece like sing-a-long ballad that begs to be swayed to as the Thunderbird drives off into the wild blue yonder with loves young dream at the wheel. The more, slightly annoying, nasal delivery on 'The Night Goes On And On' and the late night 'Latin' lament of 'Malibu Rum' are other off-piste oddities.

Continue reading: The Wooden Sky - Every Child A Daughter Every Moon A Sun Album Review