01-04-1999

M. Ward

"Duet For Guitars #2"

A small parcel came our way from an internet mate who is fond of American folk music and particularly one of their famous lame ducks, Vic Chesnutt -- very tempting. Especially as, reading the small biography of the band, we find the kind of lovely story that we like: Matt strums, like a lot of people, his guitar with his friend Adam Selzer until the day when Ira of Yo La Tengo replies to one of his letters, saying that he likes his songs a lot.
So the two friends begin to work harder and they end up finding luck in the person of Howe Gelb, the leader of Giant Sand, who signed them immediately on his label. The record begins with an instrumental. A song which immediately relieves the current tensions and obliges the listener to sit down and listen calmly to the twelve songs. With M. Ward, the acoustic guitars are dominating: guitars which lead us to a small bubble where simplicity, intimacy, fragility and nonchalance are foremen. Guitars which are also the precious friends of M. Ward's voice, a voice rasping and harsh as one could wish, a voice which reminds one of another great American tormented soul: Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse (who haunts the fastest songs or the less slow ones I should say).
What could I add... perhaps that this record by M. Ward and his three friends is an LP that we have to wear out to fully impregnate ourselves of this rickety, appealing and fascinating universe.