THE THRESHINGFLOOR

David Edwards continues to evolve his music with Wovenhand, his chosen artistic vehicle for the past eight years or so since 16 Horsepower took what is starting to look like a rather permanent hiatus. The latest offering 'The Threshingfloor' both reinforces Edwards' gruff and gritty form of folksy spiritual music and also expands on it with slightly greater lyrical depth and musical variety. The result is another winner well worth the effort it takes to get into most of Wovenhand's music, but maybe not quite as special as 2008's 'Ten Stones' or the raw and seductive 'Consider the Birds'.

If you stop with the first track you'll go away with the impression Wovenhand have simply picked up where they left off with 2008's excellent 'Ten Stones'. That would probably be good enough even if they did, but it doesn't take the trio long to branch out with the title track, a driving Pentacostal-sounding thing that features uncredited instruments which most likely include Edwards' banjola and what sounds an awful lot like a set of bagpipes. I'm pretty sure Edwards is even speaking in tongues or at least some obscure language midway through. Pretty intense and even more so as I'm playing it right now in the middle of a blistering summer evening thunderstorm.

Things lighten up just a bit with "A Holy Measure" which is musically a bit like "The Good Hand" from the band's 2002 debut album and with what sounds like a metaphysical 'Garden of Gethsemane' theme.

As I listen to this album I have to admit to being a bit annoyed with the complete lack of liner notes that accompany the digipack I preordered. I'm left wondering if there is an expanded version or limited edition coming in the near future that might at least detail out all the players and instrumentation (is that a piano at the end of "A Holy Measure" for example), also uncredited but probably played by either Edwards or perhaps Daniel McMahon who appeared on several prior Wovenhand albums but whose name doesn't appear anywhere in the credits for this one?

Edwards seems to have abandoned any pretense of secular sensibilities with this record. There are few commercial tunes or covers like "Ain't No Sunshine" from Wovenhand's debut, or "Bad Moon Rising" or Joy Division's "Day of the Lords" from his 16 Horsepower days. Almost everything here is Christ-centered and serious, nowhere more evidently than on the slow and mostly acoustic dirge "Singing Grass" (now come on ? I swear that's a cello in the background playing tricks with my ears). I love this guy's music but really this is the one drawback to the album. On pretty much everything he's done prior the mood lightens up and shifts focus to music-over-Maranatha at least once or twice. This definitely is not the sort of CD you'll throw into your car's player for a warm summer evening hanging out with friends. This is stuff meant more for personal reflection and introspection, and even then in limited doses.

The one deviation is an obscure cover of New Order's "Truth", but even here there seem to be veiled references to Edwards' religious obsessions ("Will my time pass so slowly On the day that I fear?")

The album closes with an odd countrified ditty complete with digitally-dated vocals that are maddeningly familiar but which I can't place even after spinning this thing several times. Once again I'm left lamenting the lack of liner notes for the album despite the gorgeous cover and CD art courtesy of Jay Vollmar who's also done great art for Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Tortoise, Slim Cessna, Mastodon and the Shins among others.

I've been looking forward to this record for some time, and for the most part David Eugene Edwards does not disappoint. Musically these songs are much more polished than most of what was on his 'Mosaic' and 'Consider the Birds' releases, and the rich instrumentation is definitely a welcome improvement over some rather sparse music he had become known for over the past several years. In the end though he doesn't quite make a substantial leap beyond 'Ten Stones' lyrically or with the general mood of the music, something I think he needs to do at least a little to continue progressing as well as probably for his overall mental health. I'm going with a very high three stars for this one, but reserve the right to revisit that if 'The Threshingfloor' clicks with me some time in the future.

peace