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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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M. Ward: The Magic is in the Mystery
Wednesday 26 February @ 11:38:15 |
 by Rob van Alstyne
With all the hype surrounding the current third generation post-punk resurgence sweeping indie rock, one can almost forget that riveting music existed before it was “artfully deconstructed” in the late 1970s. Portland, Ore.-based roots music sage M. Ward provides a staggeringly beautiful reminder of that in the form of his new album, Transfiguration of Vincent. An amalgamation of western-styled instrumentals, bluesy romps, folk elegies and the occasional homage to the sounds of Tin Pan Alley, Transfiguration of Vincent is a stunning achievement. Ward has produced a chameleonic take on American roots music that veers all over the map while never losing focus or collapsing under the weight of its own ambition (thanks in large part to Ward’s stellar guitar chops, the sonic glue that binds each experiment together).
Ward, just 29, comes across like a gritty blues man at points. His weathered rasp imbues “Sad, Sad Song” with the kind of lived-in weight that simply can’t be faked, and invites comparisons to the king of all gutter bum singers, Tom Waits. Like Waits and the other great ones, Ward reworks the traditions of the American song idiom with a freewheeling, “anything goes” attitude. “Well, it’s always been sort of hard for me to visualize the opposite of what anything goes is,” claims Ward via telephone. “What is that, one thing goes? That’s never been where my instincts take me. To just be interested in one style of music and only listen to that one style is not what music is about for me.”
Ward’s open-ended approach to songwriting extends beyond blending various genres and styles, bleeding over into his lyric writing. Transfiguration of Vincent keeps attentive listeners on their toes, meditating at length on issues of loss and remembrance in romantic relationships while simultaneously staring the issue of death straight in the eye with an oddly affecting mix of resigned sadness and gallows humor.
The second track, “Vincent O’Brien,” appears to directly address a friend gone by: “Hey Vincent time is running out, you better get yourself together soon.” Other songs (“Undertaker,” “Dead Man”) are equally confessional. In his liner notes, Ward scrawls, “This record was designed to keep the loss alive and behind me.” All of it begs the question to be asked. Is Transfiguration of Vincent the soundtrack of Ward’s reflections on the death of a close friend, or merely a brilliantly rendered concept album?
Ward prefers to remain silent on the issue, content to leave the line between reality and artistic conceit blurred.
“It’s the last question I prefer to answer in an interview, because I learned a while ago that other people’s interpretations of my songs are far more interesting than my own,” claims Ward. “I’m not really interested in hearing myself talk about what my artistic intentions are; I would rather hear what other people make of it. I can imagine some people just being really frustrated because it’s a riddle without any answers or something, but the one thing all the records I loved had in common was a certain mystery behind them. When I make records I try and create that kind of mystery as well. For one thing I don’t have clear answers, and if I did I wouldn’t have made the record.”
Operating without a lyrical or musical safety net, and abetted by a slew of talented musicians, Ward has crafted a timeless take on so-called ‘traditional music’ with Transfiguration of Vincent. Clearly unconcerned with limiting himself to meet the demands of any particular niche audience, from the older NPR critics who praise him to the underage indie-kid throngs he faced when opening up for Bright Eyes’ massive tour this past fall, Ward has other destinations in mind for his artistic journey.
“To tell you the honest truth I don’t think about where the music is going too much,” says Ward. “I feel like finding the right audience is more the job of the record label and the business side of things. I try to keep my mind as far away from that as possible. If I started to think about who I wanted to impress or what audience I wanted to piss off, it would take me on some detours that I would rather not go on. The route that I’m taking is really about following the inspiration that I first felt picking up the guitar and learning how to play songs, just messing around and four-tracking. That’s where I’ve come from, I have more reverence for that ideology than I do trying to understand my audience or thinking about the future too much.”
M. Ward plays Sat., Mar. 1, at the 400 Bar with Stuart Davis. 9 p.m. $10. 21+. 400 Cedar Ave. S., Mpls. 612-332-2903.
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