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Ben Weaver - Ax In The Oak
There's a rural mysticism to Ben Weaver's music that sends romanticised city-dwelling anti-urbanists like myself weak at the knees. With intricate song-stories telling tales of wild deer, firewood piles and other gloriously-bucolic imagery, it's difficult to not find your mind drifting away to a simpler, gentler (and no doubt unreal) life.
'Ax In The Oak' is Weaver's sixth long-player. It's also his finest. Once again partnered with Brian Deck, the producer he worked with for 07's 'Paper Sky' and the guy responsible for seminal albums from the likes of Iron and Wine and Modest Mouse, Weaver has made a conscious decision here to push his song-writing traditions close to breaking point. This is Weaver in experimental mode and it's an enthralling sound.
Album opener 'White Snow' should be familiar to all as the free teaser Mp3 that sent blogs and ezines into meltdown last month. Three minutes fourteen seconds of shuffling folk-rock, it's a splendid introduction to the anti-trad songwriting approach Weaver adopts across the breadth of this LP. It also welcomes the uninitiated to Weaver's fine gravelly burr; a musical weapon so distinct that it sounds like nothing else on this planet.
As 'Ax In The Oak' gently unfolds we find Weaver in contradictive moods. With the bleak melancholy of 'Dead Birds' and 'Soldier's War' he sounds lost and struggling to find a way out of some pretty debilitating darkness (sample lyric: "Cinders in coats of smoke, from the chimney fly forth / When leaves are black bats in the cold woods at night") but then suddenly with a shift in tempo and the gentle rub of some electro glitches and Weaver's full of hope; finding redemption in the very next song ('Alligators And Owls'). It's a strange but intoxicating journey and one that has perhaps been put in place to remove Weaver from his songwriting (musically and lyrically) comfort zone.
The end result is an album that begs to be played on rotation. A multi-layered and fascinating insight into the creative mind of one of America's most understated songwriters 'Ax In The Hand' has quickly established itself as Weaver's calling card. The big question now is where can he go next?
'Ax In The Wood' is available now through Bloodshot Records
Matt Brown
'Ax In The Oak' is Weaver's sixth long-player. It's also his finest. Once again partnered with Brian Deck, the producer he worked with for 07's 'Paper Sky' and the guy responsible for seminal albums from the likes of Iron and Wine and Modest Mouse, Weaver has made a conscious decision here to push his song-writing traditions close to breaking point. This is Weaver in experimental mode and it's an enthralling sound.
Album opener 'White Snow' should be familiar to all as the free teaser Mp3 that sent blogs and ezines into meltdown last month. Three minutes fourteen seconds of shuffling folk-rock, it's a splendid introduction to the anti-trad songwriting approach Weaver adopts across the breadth of this LP. It also welcomes the uninitiated to Weaver's fine gravelly burr; a musical weapon so distinct that it sounds like nothing else on this planet.
As 'Ax In The Oak' gently unfolds we find Weaver in contradictive moods. With the bleak melancholy of 'Dead Birds' and 'Soldier's War' he sounds lost and struggling to find a way out of some pretty debilitating darkness (sample lyric: "Cinders in coats of smoke, from the chimney fly forth / When leaves are black bats in the cold woods at night") but then suddenly with a shift in tempo and the gentle rub of some electro glitches and Weaver's full of hope; finding redemption in the very next song ('Alligators And Owls'). It's a strange but intoxicating journey and one that has perhaps been put in place to remove Weaver from his songwriting (musically and lyrically) comfort zone.
The end result is an album that begs to be played on rotation. A multi-layered and fascinating insight into the creative mind of one of America's most understated songwriters 'Ax In The Hand' has quickly established itself as Weaver's calling card. The big question now is where can he go next?
'Ax In The Wood' is available now through Bloodshot Records
Matt Brown
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