Published on Oct 13, 2000
On first glance, it would be easy to pass up
Jen’s Cobbler, the independent release from Virginia-based
Envywaits. (If you’ve read “The Daily Vault” for some time, you’ll
remember we did a review of a group named Opus Jones; Envywaits was
formed from the ashes of that group.) The simple packaging gives no
hint as to what kind of music is contained therein, and some people
might not get past the basic looks of the CD. Even yours truly, the
seasoned old music critic, left this disc languishing in the “to be
reviewed” piles of the Pierce Memorial Archives before something
told me I should get off my duff and review the disc. (Usually,
that something is an e-mail from a publicist or the band
themselves… not this time.)
Go ahead, put aside your first visual impressions of this disc.
Put it in the CD player. Now, put on the headphones, sit back in a
comfortable chair, and take an hour out of your life. This duet of
guitarist Patrick Hughes and vocalist Marc Dixon is absolutely
phenomenal, crafting some of the best folk-based pop since I first
was exposed to artists like David Wilcox.
Prepare to have your emotional doors blown clean off their
hinges at times. Envywaits magically captures raw emotion and puts
it into words, a skill which is guaranteed to pull at your
heartstrings from time to time. Personally, I have difficulty
getting through a song like “Christopher’s Song,” a song written to
Hughes’s then-unborn child. It’s not just that the song is
hauntingly beautiful, but it’s that such a song, telling of the
selflessness of the parent, makes me feel like I’ve failed more
than I’ve succeeded in rasing my own child, and how much sometimes
I hate being a parent when the job gets difficult. Songs like
“Christopher’s Song” almost rub it in, making the job sound like a
cake walk for some people.
In the same vein, some people might find it hard to get through
a song like “Monty,” which deals with the way children can be cruel
to someone who doesn’t neatly fit into the neighborhood cliques. I
fully expected this one to have a “Jeremy”-type tragic ending, but
it didn’t. The conclusion of the story is a little far-fetched, but
it does show how the neighborhood dweeb can become the most
respected person – leaving even the bullies in awe.
Throughout the bulk of
Jen’s Cobbler, Envywaits shows just how much power can come
from one guitar and one vocal. Yes, I could see a bass, piano and
drums in the mix at times, but Hughes and Dixon keep the listener’s
interest throughout this disc, something hard to do for such a
stripped-down group. Tracks like “Just A Thought,” “Voices,” “Mixed
Emotions” and “Leaving Pain” all should leave the listener feeling
happily drained by the time the disc ends… and you’ll find
yourself wanting to put this particular disc on permanent rotation
in your CD player.
Envywaits is the kind of group that doesn’t neatly fit into any
one particular genre – and that’s perfectly all right. It would be
nice to see a more specialized label (you listening, American
Gramaphone? Narada? Rounder?) give this band a chance to prove
themselves to the world. Until then,
Jen’s Cobbler is proof enough for me that this band is pure
magic. Here’s hoping they don’t remain a localized secret for long.
Go ahead, have yourself a slice… what the hell, make it a double,
and don’t feel guilty about it.