M. Ward, Duet for Guitars #2

reviewed by dave heaton

How exciting it is to have M. Ward’s 2000 debut album back in print, completing the picture the public has of this gifted singer/songwriter, who has his own distinct presence and worldview. That presence is instantly recognized at the album’s first moment, as his gentle finger-picking style of guitar-playing, evocative of the past but very in the moment, emerges from the shadows. And even more so with the next song, when he starts singing – his fragile, raspy voice resembling one off a dusty old record from another time. That song, “Beautiful Car”, is pretty and light, while telling a murder tale that brings to mind age-old folk-song storytelling traditions. It’s just a wisp of a song, yet leaves a permanent impression.

That’s true of Ward’s music in general: it’s hard to imagine any one hearing any of his albums for the first time and dismissing it as too ordinary or trendy. He inhabits his own space, drawing from ghosts of the past to create his own style.

These recordings are rougher than even the subsequent LP End of Amnesia (2002) would be: they’re baby steps. This is also less of a trip to one complete world, less of a concept album, than either >Amnesia or 2003’s The Transfiguration of Vincent. It’s more a song collection, like Transistor Radio or Post-War. It’s easy to imagine a few of these songs re-recorded on a higher budget, fitting un-noticed within those newer albums. Themes like dreams, memory, death and reincarnation possess him here as much as they would later, even if these songs often resemble sketches compared to the newer albums. They’re sketches, but lovely ones…and sketching is in a way a fitting for him to work in. Sketching out frames of mood, melody and mystery, like he’s tracing the outlines of a ghost.

{www.mergerecords.com}