The debut album by The Welcome Wagon unveils a ramshackle sing-a-long enterprise of a Presbyterian pastor (the Rev. Vito Aiuto) and his wife (Monique) wrestling out the influences of folk music, religion, popular culture, and church tradition in a collection of songs that is as soulful as it is good-humored. This gorgeous brew is reflected in the group’s repertoire, which unflinchingly consolidates a vast history of “sacred” song traditions: from Old Testament psalms, to Presbyterian Psalters of the 17th century, to iconoclastic pop innovators of the 1960s (The Velvet Underground), to charismatic Catholics of the 1970s (Lenny Smith), and into the melancholy lovelorn pop of the 1980s (The Smiths). There are even a few originals. Armed with a particleboard parlor guitar and a plastic glockenspiel, pastor and wife stumble their way through an arresting catalog of hymns—hallowed and unholy—with the simple desire to know their Maker—and to know each other—more intimately. The result—due, in part, to producer/arranger Sufjan Stevens—is an awe-inspiring collection of hymns, pop covers, and originals that render soulful stunts from quiet skirmishes of home recordings. Gathering together a camaraderie of musical helpers (among them members of Vito’s church: a gospel choir, lap steel guitar, upright bass, and a brass ensemble), Sufjan enlivens The Welcome Wagon’s quaint haberdashery of songs with epic flourishes, drawing out allusions to honky-tonk, Broadway theater, and funk with the curatorial eye of an over-excited musicologist. The final product results in a stunning cross section of rehearsals and home recordings serendipitously captured in living rooms, churches, and home studios across Brooklyn and Queens over the course of some eight-odd years.
This album is wonderful, due mostly to the amount of liberties that it sounds like Sufjan took in the production process. I imagine that this is one that Kathryn will squeal a little about, and it may garner an eye-roll from Devin.
Tracklisting:
1. Up On A Mountain
2. Sold! To The Rich Man
3. Unless The Lord The House Shall Build
4. He Never Said A Mumblin' Word
5. Hail To The Lord's Anointed
6. But For You Who Fear My Name
7. American Legion
8. You Made My Day
9. Half A Person
10. Jesus
11. I Am A Stranger
12. Deep Were His Wounds, And Red
Part 1
Part 2
