order
Keith Wood and his Hush Arbors project had a good year in 2006. After multiple solo tours and stints with Wooden Wand & the Vanishing Voice, his first CD and LP were released earlier in the year. He ended the year relocating to England and plying his trade across the pond. With all this in mind, it was decided that a re-release of his first full-length for Digitalis was in order, and thus this expanded version of "Under Bent Limb Trees" was born.
Keith Wood concocts massive emotional releases in his head and transfers them to tape using the most organic means possible. Bowed dulcimer, singing bowl, banjo, and a his trademark falsetto dot the horizon of this majestic album. This graceful and subdued music has been extracted from the earth and laden with golden spirits.
This two CD set, housed in gatefold cardboard jackets, is the perfect embodiment of Wood's delicate take on shy melancholia that has one foot in the forest and one on a log fire, burning with passion. His experience as the go-to guy of not only Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance) but Massachussets God-botherers Sunburned Hand of the Man for live appearances has clearly set him in good stead for his own recordings, and this collection only serves to magnify his deft talent and unique voice.
Disc one features the whole of "Under Bent Limb Trees," newly remastered and sounding better than ever. The real prize is in the second disc, which features out-of-print, rare, and unreleased tracks culled from Wood's own collection and various limited and obscure releases.
tracklist:
disc one
1. spirits over mt. blanca
2. the forest we've been
3. wooded reel
4. where the black bear hides in the sky
5. may all your pastures now spring with herbs
6. gypsy wood (audio sample)
7. song for morning to sing
8. dark mist curtains the doorway
9. kudzu covered maples
disc two
1. under the death tree (audio sample)
2. the valley
3. brittle village
4. clothed with sun
5. if there be spirits, let them come
tracks 1 & 3 from 3-way split cd-r w/ the north sea & terracid on barl fire recordings.
tracks 2 & 4 previously unreleased
track 5 (unlisted on cd sleeve) from the out-of-print 3" of the same name.
Praise for Hush Arbors:
"Just as comfortable wringing deadly screaming leads from his guitar as he is coaxing gentle modern day country hymns to Catatonia from it, Wood is, first and foremost, a songwriter in the traditional sense. his songs will feel right at home during nights of quiet debauchery, as well as during those shame-filled mo(u)rnings after.'' - James Toth, Wooden Wand & the Vanishing Voice
"Hush Arbors' new release "Under Bent Limb Trees" explores the many facets of nature – the warmth of a hazy sunny summer day, the angry tumult of a storm, and the enclosing menace of kudzu cover. Wood’s Nature is not only worthy of our admiration but also our respect and awe. It is a beguiling mixture of delicate seductive sun-washed days and grim, steely, claustrophobic blackness." - Steve Rybicki, Fakejazz
"Like his friend and sometime collaborator Ben Chasny-- who last year also contributed liner notes to Hush Arbors' self-titled album-- Keith Wood here shows the ability to take the barest ingredients of folk and psych-rock traditions and transmute them into his own unique form of sorcery." - Matthew Murphy, Pitchfork