the wandering hearts

​The Wandering Hearts (from the album The Wandering Hearts available Cooking Vinyl Limited)  (by Chris Wheatley)
‘It sounds like someone put the world on mute’ says AJ Dean-Revington who, together with Chess Whiffin and Tara Wilcox, comprise The Wandering Hearts. Dean-Revington is speaking of the locale, high up in the Catskill Mountains, in Woodstock, New York, where, during the wintertime, the band recorded their self-titled sophomore album, a follow-up to 2017's Wild Silence. This is a band to whom authenticity clearly matters, and it's hard to envision an more apt setting for The Wandering Hearts music. ‘It was on the Ashokan trail and had the most incredible views’ says Chess of the intimate studio where the tracks were laid down. After daily recording sessions, the group would retire to a ‘mountainside clapboard farmhouse’ to jam, aided by a vintage 1930s Recording King tenor guitar, loaned by the farmhouse's owner. The Wandering Hearts met by chance through mutual friends and, in a dream start to their career, were picked up by a management company just twenty-six minutes after uploading their first ever demo to SoundCloud. Equally impressive, the trio won the prestigious Bob Harris Emerging Artist award in 2018.
“Hammer Falls” starts us off here, and what a wonderful number it is. Over a classic, rolling Bluesy acoustic guitar riff, softly thumping drums rise and some frankly beautiful harmonized vocals coalesce. It's a track which could lilt along on those opening few bars repeated, but main vocals soon kick in, tambourine ups the pace and sparkling electric guitar flickers round the edges. There's a lot to enjoy here. The warm, sunny production leaves enough hazy lines so that the crystal-clear guitar shines through to great effect. “Over Your Body”, in contrast, kicks off with a decidedly modern-sounding, shuffling drum-beat, punctuated by subtle guitar. Once again, it's those harmonized vocals which steal the show. On this track, indeed throughout the entire album, The Wandering Hearts show themselves eminently capable of crafting music with depth and soul, yet possessed of a warm, radio-friendly feel.
“I Feel It Too” is a heart-felt lullaby of a number. A guitar, and those voices, are all The Wandering Hearts need to conjure up a magical, timeless fantasy. ‘There's gold in the ground to be used...darling, I feel it too’. Circling lyrics and gentle motifs are the watchwords. One of the slower numbers, “Dolores”, is just as appealing. Finger-picked, interweaving guitars dance and flow like a summer stream. Vocally, you couldn't ask for richer, more luscious sounds. You can easily visualize mountain meadows and clear blues skies. “Dreams”, a standout track for this listener, adds a playful Americana edge, reminiscent of the great Outlaw Country stars of old. The easy, rambling, shambling feel is married to pin-point playing and earnest emotion. This would have been a hit in the 1950s. It ought to be a hit now.
Some of that classic feel is doubtless down to the wonderful production. The band single out producers  Simone Felice and David Baron for providing a ‘safe, super positive space which felt almost spiritual in its focus’ and the “incredible analog recording gear’. Gear and location alone aren't enough, of course. The Wandering Hearts do both justice thanks to some superb playing and no little heart. Fans of lavishly crafted Country Pop are going to love this. Lavish, here, is used to connote effort and invention. The music itself feels as light as a feather and sounds as open as the hills. Recommended. (by Chris Wheatley)
 
Listen and buy the music of The Wandering Hearts from AMAZON
Please visit The Wandering Hearts website for more information

---