the wood and the wild - the wood and the wild

The Wood And The Wild

The Wood And The Wild
self-released; 2014

4.2 out of 5

By Matt Jensen

The Wood and The Wild is a band led by Jon Perry that you just have to listen to appreciate. On their self-titled album The Wood and The Wild there is a timeless quality that is anchored in traditional folk music. I sensed influences from sources like Donovan, The Beatles, Tame Impala and even Fleet Foxes. Perry describes the music as cinematic folk, which fits. The music is largely organic-based and played on acoustic instrumentation but it contains swells of strings, strategically placed and processed reverb heavy vocals, and a numbers of other elements that create a sense of space and atmosphere.

It doesn't hurt either that Perry has a delightful voice (sounding a bit like Lennon at times) that is tailor-made for folk. He has a good delivery as well as lyrics that feel inventive and free of clichés. 

“Loveless Traveler / Belles On The Tye” doesn't waste any time getting to the good parts as Perry sings “yeah its a long long road I know.” Soon to follow are almost ominous sounding synths that create a thematic presence to the song.  The song goes places you wouldn't expect a folk song to go and is all the better for it is quite impressive how Perry seamlessly transitions from cinematic swells to sparse folk. 

Perry is just getting started as “Suffering Maid” combines very nice sounding vocal harmonies, drums and guitars. The exceptional parts are the transitions he attempts and pulls off. The song goes from a clapping percussive breakdown with vocals to an ominous sounding fog of string and back into the verse of song – all within about the span of a minute. Perry continues to impress as “Wheels” takes advantage of manipulating vocals with lo-pass filters and other times coating them with hall-like reverbs while “Long Days” solidifies the meaning of cinematic folk.

The album ends with a piano ballad that is truly a beautiful song. It starts off simply enough with piano and vocals, which would have been great but this is cinematic folk. Perry adds ambient strings as well as synths to create a angelic atmosphere. 

I like a lot of artists that come through “The Equal Ground” but Perry is in the upper echelon. The guy has some serious skill and basically created a genre. Give this man some love and check out The Wood and the Wild.