2015-03-11
Arrowhill is a family band based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Borne of the Treehouse Community in the Baxter neighborhood, their sound embodies the collective. On their debut album, “Between Two Mountains,” Male and female vocals sing synchronously on a backdrop of mountain folk-style instrumentation. The songs incorporate plucky banjo, fiddle, bare percussion, and even a musical saw and train whistle at some points. Lyrically, Arrowhill treats spirituality, love, and the universality of living.
Most songs on “Between Two Mountains” have a ghostly, minor-keyed feel to them. They have a momentum that chugs forward as a train might through Appalachia. The sunniest track on the album is the third, “paddling upstream, downstream,” which most prominently expresses the community everyone in the world is part of: living beings. The harmonic vocals are beautiful, and they are occasionally joined by the sweet voices of children. Those voices combined with the gypsy folk sensibilities of Arrowhill’s sound make “Between Two Mountains” a positively charming record. It will both warm your heart and inspire you to reflect.
review by Marie
BETH ORTON
Comfort of Strangers
WILD PONIES
THINGS THAT USED TO SHINE
HEADLESS HEROES
The Silence of Love
BLACK JAKE AND THE CARNIES
Where The Heather Don't Grow
Billy Bragg
Mr. Love & Justice
BRUCE COCKBURN
Small Source of Comfort
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