Forest Full of Wolves

Description

Forest Full of Wolves is an album by the American singer and songwriter Bill Mallonee of Vigilantes of Love fame, independently released by Mallonee in January 2018.

If you’d like to hear a real man of the woods, may I suggest Bill Mallonee. There’s no image manipulation with him. When you see photos of Mallonee with his long beard, taken out in the wild, you know this is how he really lives. Mallonee has been plying his trade for nearly 30 years, first with the Vigilantes of Love, and then solo. He has something like 40 solo records, and he’s been cranking them out at a rate of at least one a year for a long time. Lately they’ve been true solo records – just Bill in his country house, overdubbing drums and bass and guitars and then singing in his world-weary, wise voice. His records are dispatches from his soul, and they feel like them.

His latest is called Forest Full of Wolves, and like much of his recent material, it’s somewhat dark and bleak. Mallonee believes in facing darkness full on, and wringing whatever hope he can out of it. I sometimes criticize Mallonee for writing the same kind of great song over and over, and he makes no strides in another direction on Forest. It’s just another ten really good Bill Mallonee tunes, poems set to jangly American rock and roll.

That said, there’s nothing here I don’t like. I’m a particular fan of «In the New Dark Age», which is subtitled “The Best Thing You Can Do is Fall in Love.” It’s kind of the perfect Mallonee song, taking an unflinching look at broken lives and bringing them courage. «Changing of the Guard» is a surprisingly political number: “Now the devil pays for your allegiance, hiding behind stars and stripes, he speaks his piece through the lips of the elite and appears as an angel of light…”

There are more than a few excellent turns of phrase on this record, some of them exactly what a poet like him should be speaking into the world right now. «Before the Darkness Settles In» is another one that doesn’t flinch: “Now the milk of human kindness is curdled to the bone, and the autumn light is paler than I’ve ever known, pull on your heavy coat before the howling wind, before the darkness settles in…” «I Know, I Know» is about lies, and twists the knife with this verse: “Now I know a good joke, and I’ll share it with thee, what’s a hundred politicians at the bottom of the sea?”

But of all of his hymns of hard-fought hope, it’s «Trimmed and Burning» that most does it for me this time. The final verse: “I hate to end on a sober note, but there are spirits who won’t survive, in a world of meanness and cruelty, they won’t get out alive, so hand the world an olive branch, and hand yourself one too…”

Bill Mallonee has been as honest a songwriter as one could hope for (as well as a heck of a guitar player) for decades now, and each new record just solidifies that legacy. I’m happy he’s still at it. I’m happy I get to pay for a new set of songs every year (at least), and happy that this music still feeds him, both physically and spiritually. Forest Full of Wolves is another in a long line of really good Mallonee records, and if you want to start somewhere, this is as good a place to begin as any. [Andre Salles, Tuesday Morning 3 a.m., February 20, 2018]

CD tracklist:

01. Face of the Clock – 5:10
02. In the New Dark Age (The Best Thing You Can Do Is Fall In Love) – 5:31
03. Love Is Always Risky Currency – 4:01
04. Changing of the Guard – 5:09
05. Voodoo Ink – 6:09
06. I Know, I Know – 5:32
07. Lewis & Clark – 5:13
08. Trimmed & Burning – 5:11
09. Before the Darkness Settles In – 6:04
10. Forest Full of Wolves – 6:55

Note: CD includes a lyric booklet featuring original art created for this project by visual artist and musician, Chris Taylor and music mastered by Chris Bethea at Noiseblock studio. Available at bandcamp: https://billmalloneemusic.bandcamp.com/album/forest-full-of-wolves-digital-cd-w-expanded-art-work-available-at-www-billmalloneemusic-com