Review: Kalispell - Westbound

Words // Scott Pingeton

I think you're gonna dig this one, so listen up.  Kalispell is the work of Shane Leonard, and it brims with the earnestness you may have come to expect from fellow Eau Claire Wisconsin locals Justin Vernon, S. Carey and Chris Porterfield.  Westbound is a gorgeous and deeply personal record, perhaps influenced at least in part by the circumstances around Leonard's move from Massachusetts to Wisconsin. I think Kalispell's bandcamp page paints a better picture than I could:

It's like when good friends gather, perhaps around a fire in someone's backyard as the night settles or on the front stoop of your house, cigarette in hand—the setting doesn't matter. It's about the moment after the laughter quiets and the tone shifts, when you venture to say what's been heavy on the mind, so near the tongue, so hard to admit: 

How you've grown impatient with the "state of summer's same."
How you feel alone with the person who should know you best.
How "there was no devotion / in our frozen poses."
How you said yes when you meant no.

Intimate confessions set to folk music is nothing unique, but I think Kalispell does it particularly well - combining confident lyrics with intricate, textured compositions.  From the clawhammer banjo on "Methodist Lift" to "Marion, MT", a folk-dirge that recalls The Low Anthem, to "Lucky A Hundred Times", a gently rolling highlight, the album covers enough sonic ground to hold the listeners interest throughout.  It's a great listen - highly recommended.

Kalispell - Lucky A Hundred Times

Kalispell was at the Middle East in Cambridge last week -- my timing sucks.  Shout if you were there!

Kalispell - Last Year EP

Words // Scott Pingeton

New Years Resolution: Be better about reading emails + listening to artist submissions

Somewhere along the way, reading through the blog's email started to feel like a chore...most likely because I get more emails about dub-step remixes and wanna-be pop stars than stuff that I might actually listen to.  As a result of all this riff-raff, some worthwhile emails fall through the cracks.  That's what happened here.  Lost in the abyss that is my email, was a polite and informative email from Kalispell's Shane Leonard.  For the record it was flagged for closer inspection, but that rarely means that I'll actually go back and read it or listen to the music.  In this case, I did actually go back, and I'm glad I did. 

Kalispell is based out of Eau Claire, Wisconsin - a folk collective that features the songwriting of Shane Leonard, with accompaniment from members of S. Carey's and AA Bondy's bands.  The instrumentation is subtle; just enough to paint a sonic landscape, but not enough to distract from the lyrics.  Piano, fingerpicked guitar, brushed snare and Leonard's engaging stories.  Now if I had only read the email sooner I, and maybe some of you, could have seen Kalispell in JP or Somerville last week.  I guess the brief, three song Last Year EP will have to tide me over until the next time they make it to Boston.