Under the Boughs Unbowed
Tully Rohrer
December 2nd, 2006
I went for a nice hike with my father yesterday up on a ridge behind our house. We found an old abandoned cabin, and I snapped a couple photos of it. This is my dad checking out the structural integrity.
Continuing on with my favorite songs of this year… There was a lot of worry surrounding The Decemberists‘ first major label release. Many faithful fans wondered if Capitol would force them to change their sound or abandon their ten minute story-songs. When The Crane Wife started leaking to the internet, it became very clear that the band had made the transition from independent label to major label quite seamlessly. In fact, The Crane Wife is quite a bit better than 2004’s Picaresque. At #15 on the Favorites of the Year chart is the opener to the album, titled The Crane Wife 3. Colin Meloy starts everything off with a 12-string guitar as the rest of the band joins him with a tom-heavy drum beat, piano, a melodic bass line, a xylophone, and some nice vocal harmonies. The song is actually about a Japanese fable by the same title in which a greedy husband forces his wife to sew him silk goods to sell. She agrees, but only if he never watches her sew them. One day he decides to look, and he discovers that a crane is actually pulling its feathers out and weaving them in the loom. Weird story, weird band. But as always, they hold down the fort with the reputation for having one of the most wonderful and bizarre live shows. And they’re battling Stephen Colbert!!!! Gotta love that.
Favorites of 2006:
#16: Islands - Rough Gem
#15: The Decemberists - The Crane Wife 3
im glad to hear you and bobby are still takin walks together and that you got to visit him in his new house. as far as the decemberists, right on. check in with the cold war kids and come back east for the shows in nyc.
you look like your dad.
a) I want to come live where you live.
b) I completely agree with today’s musical choice and am quite excited that I already know it.
c) I love the how bright the image is though it’s mostly muted tones. Good job!