We can never fully know one another. Even if we wished to, none of us are able to properly express all of the things that make us what we are. One of the most extraordinary aspects of music is the form’s capacity to communicate the otherwise indecipherable.
Nate Wooley’s new album Ancient Songs of Burlap Heroes is an uncannily accurate representation of what’s going on in my head when I wake up at 4 a.m. Mary Halvorson’s interrogative guitar squiggles in one channel and Susan Alcorn’s melancholic pedal steel musings in the other signify conflicting trains of thought.
The trumpet and amplifier sounds created by Wooley and the drumming of Ryan Sawyer signify the firing of additional synapses. Peaceful moments of clarity are overwhelmed by anxious clamor. Ancient Songs of Burlap Heroes is decidedly acidic. In the annoying parlance of social media, I feel seen.
