Search - Celebration :: Wounded Healer

A sense of resilient joy bursts out of Wounded Healer from front to end. Rollin On erupts in a flurry of soulful vocals, bass swagger and organ-driven sassiness. Velvet Gloves is like a Bond theme in waiting, its string-lavished grandeur turning heartache into drama. Elsewhere, ambitious arcs are traced from the melting balladry of Spider to the gospel plaint of Granite , sax-strafed funk of Stevie , fleet-footed alt-pop of Paper Trails and marching-band spritz of Drum and Phife, which strikes a closing note of think-forward hope.
Celebration gave the album due time to stew, using money from gigs to book studio stints and the downtime between sessions to dream up ideas. Former band-mates Walker Teret and Tony Drummond were instrumental in helping to lay its foundations, until Drummond left to work on his solo album and Teret left to tour with Lower Dens both with Celebration s blessings. Doors were flung open for guests to add piccolo flutes, tubas and strings. Besides Teret and Drummond, some 17 extra musicians stepped in, eight of them singers. Amongst the guest vocalists is Samuel T Herring of Future Islands, the Baltimore-based break-out heroes whose touring/recording ties to Celebration go way back.
What emerges is an album emboldened enough by core group bonds to open its arms in a spirit of full-blooded generosity. And if the result ranges rich and wide, the tight knot of contrasts in its title lends Wounded Healer its force of cohesive conviction. Only when the name came to us did I understand this was a medicine record, Ford explains. Most of the songs were written a while ago. Some of the feelings experienced when written have changed context over time. They have evolved towards healing or resolution.