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Little Wings.
 When I received Kyle Field's answers to my questions I was sour, disappointed. I toiled to write interesting detailed passages and he returned my email with little more than a sentence for the most part. He didn't even respond to some of it. But, as I wrote to him, there are times in the day and the night when we have little epiphanies. I got this feeling inside me that Kyle Field wrote exactly what he meant, with an economy of words, with language so simple and pure and it could only be perfect. Like his lyrics linger and his melodies become part of your world, so his thoughts echo with all the young charm of a baby bird, of the turn of the seasons, of the brilliant colours of the sky.
Sally Seltmann (New Buffalo) is going on her first national tour and as luck would have it, just prior to that time Kyle Field will be in Japan playing with locals The Mools as his backing band. Since his good friend and K Records label mate Phil Elvrum (aka The Microphones/Mount Eerie) had a good time here last winter, it seems natural that Field should also grace our shores. The fact that Field is a mad surfer makes even more sense that he should visit Australia. "I grew up in the ocean and it carries solitude in it the same way music and singing does."
'Magic Wand'is Little Wings' sixth record, an album streaked with maritime themes with sea shanties, campfire singalongs, the fresh spray of waves of simple, romantic song writing. It follows 'Light Green Leaves', a record released on three formats, each of them containing a different version of the same songs, the 'Wonder' trilogy: three collections thematically brimming with wonder, and the 'Harvest Joy' live release. 'Magic Wand' extends Field's vision of love for the natural world. His songs are sung with affection, from devotion within, beaming outward with every breath and turn of melody. Opening the album is Everybody, perhaps Field's most beautiful composition yet. For five short minutes his humble tenor, distant falsetto and plain guitar strum circles around his lyrics of a man as the universe, the trees, the breath of the Creator. "I believe in God," Field shrugs. Everybody could be a hymn to a power we cannot understand, an existential folk song that can be sung in chorus, the hills and troughs of its delicate phrasing moving like tiny particles, lighting up the golden face of man.
'Magic Wand' is "like a wish for how your life could change". It is embedded within the record the feeling of empowerment through song and through the worship of all the things around us that give us joy. Aided by some 20 friends referred to as The Wands, including Mr. and Mrs. Phil Elvrum and producer/K Records boss Calvin Johnson, the album gathers soft white-soul guitars, far-away drums, echoing voices, hand drums, fluttering pianos, Jamaican steel drums and Field's ever-present imperfect coo. It is so easily to step into the world of Little Wings for it mirrors our own. Take refuge in Field's arms; watch the stars above him as they blur into sleep.
Lenin Simos
 | Little Wings plays at the Grace Emily with New Buffalo on Wed 2 March. |
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