Wovenhand - Consider the Birds
(Sounds Familyre)
In a town on the edge of the Mojave, the heat is so intense and oppressive that the only refuge can be found in the partial shade of the trading post’s porch. A lone figure on horseback slowly materializes from the waves of a mirage. He is playing a guitar and the notes waver like dust motes in the air. An unseen spectral band fortifies and amplifies this otherworldly effect. As the figure draws closer, the gilt embossed in the leather cover of a Bible hanging from one side of the saddle flashes a piercing blinding light. The other side of the saddle bears the single word “Wovenhand.” The town’s new preacher has arrived.
Wovenhand is the solo project of David Eugene Edwards. Wovehand was born when Edwards decided to take a hiatus from Sixteen Horsepower to work on songs that he had been writing that were even more personal and spiritual than his work with that band. Although he still splits his time between these projects, most of the music he has released in the last few years has been as Wovenhand. Far from simply being a solo diversion, Wovenhand has become the primary repository for Edwards’ dark gospel music. Edwards played all instruments on most of Consider the Birds and he wrote all songs except for a towering, gothic arrangement of the traditional “Down in Yon Forest.”
Edwards’ attitude towards his maker alternates between fear and love and the tension between these two is always in evidence. This dichotomy is clearly stated in the album’s opening couplet, “Holy king cause my skin to crawl/Away from every evil thing.” Here, Edwards asserts that God provides moral guidance by instilling fear of sin. Disdain for this God’s rules carry with them a harsh punishment; the withholding of acceptance on Judgment day.
One would not expect this to sit easily in a culture where Free Will holds sway and the internal conflict this engenders in Edwards pervades Consider the Birds. It is felt in the taut arrangements where wisps of distortion, spliced tape and noise provide a sinister backdrop to Edwards’ sonorous voice. The lyrics paint a picture of a man constantly at war with himself over his relationship with the divine. Even Edwards’ picture on the back cover shows him gazing heavenward with a sneer on his lips and fear in his eyes.
Consider the Birds leads off with “Sparrow Falls” in which Edwards’ delicate acoustic guitar is caught up in whirls of piano, bells and a shuffling brush beat. His sermon begins with the disclaimer “I will you no grief” even though the lines that follow indicate that his spirit was not always so generous (“Once had a mind to/I’m done with that now”). The shepherd calls his flock in with reassuring words that also hint that a firestorm will surely arrive.
In “To Make a Ring”, the storm arrives. Edwards’ warns amidst swirling violins and rumbling toms that “Judgment will not be avoided by your unbelief/Your lack of fear” and that the Lord “owns all these cattle [and] hills.” It is as if omniscience and omnipotence have begotten disdain for Man’s follies. The only hope of salvation is to raise voices in praise. We exist on God’s sufferance and our only (bleary eyed) duty is to pay homage to his glory.
However, if the album were all fire and brimstone, it would quickly lose its power. The ballads “Chest of Drawers”, and “Oil on Panel” form the emotional centerpiece of Consider the Birds. Edwards speaks of finding his “country” in God’s hands and eye. It is a moment of transcendent acceptance that validates his constant wrestling with his choice of course. These songs swing through the gorgeous piano of “Speaking Hands” into the aforementioned majestic “Down in Yon Forest.” The lonesome banjo introduction to “Tin Finger” is almost overwhelmed by clobbering guitar bursts yet continues unscathed, perhaps a metaphor for Edwards’ own faith.
So much gospel music proclaims exuberant love for a higher power that it may come as a rude awakening when a singer instead professes that prone and quivering obedience to the Lord may be the highest calling of humanity. Whether one agrees with Edwards’ philosophy of divinity is hardly the point; Consider the Birds is a deeply personal and beautifully realized soundtrack to one man’s struggle for and with his soul. As such, it is worthy of our attention.
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