Festival, Come, Arrow, Come!

by dave heaton

Come, Arrow, Come! opens with women – sisters Alexis and Lindsay Powell, the singers and songwriters for quintet Festival – singing a capella, and quite beautifully actually. They instantly transport us to some undefined day of old, with the feeling of a folk song that was passed down, sung around the fire. The lyrics (“oh the days are long and the days are had”) makes me imagine Civil War-era times, while the hand claps and traveling/love-lorn chorus make it also sound fresh, taking the pain and joy of it through the ages.

After that, when the instruments come in, the album goes more into dream/psychedelic mode, but still at times offers that ancient-chorale feeling, like at the end of “Blown Light”. “Return” is uniquely stormy, ominous. The sisters sing powerfully throughout the album. Yet nothing here is quite as grabbing as that first track, which is a doozey. Except maybe “Valentine”, which has a weird giddiness, recalling love or a church celebration or maybe both. The album ends with a hunting song, placing Come, Arrow, Come! firmly in their own weird naturalist/mystic/dreamer’s place.

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