The Wild starts a long summer tour today in Cincinnati that will take them from coast to coast supporting their stirring new album Dreams Are Maps.
I’ve been following The Wild’s energetic, passionate music for about a year and a half — ever since the band opened for The Queers in a great night at The Wormhole here in Savannah.
The sound is a beautiful melding of folk and punk. The punk label fits because of The Wild’s unbridled, anti-establishment energy — many of the songs touch on social causes and on the dehumanizing dangers of overarching bureaucracies. But the work is more idealistic than cynical, more innocent than jaded. Add in the acoustic elements and the sometimes lilting vocals, and the sound is in the tradition of American folk music, not afraid to ask the big questions: Why? and Why not?
From the opening track “There’s a Darkness (But There’s Also a Light)”:
One song deals with migrants crossing the border and later facing violent expulsion from the country; another catches the spirit of protestors at Fort Benning, home to the controversial School of the Americas.
But the majority of the songs are about more existential journeys — about making the most of the time we have and loving the people around us along the way.
I used to kill myself to feel like I was alive,
But since I lost you friend, I learned it was a lie…
All those walls we build so tall and wide,
It’s a coward’s way to be alive.
The Wild is Bryan Scherer (Drums, Guitar, Vocals), Dianna Settles (Vocals and Tambourine), Steve D’agostino (Banjo, Pedal Steel, Vocals, Fiddle, and Guitar), Dakota Floyd (Bass, Vocals, and Bad Puns), and Witt Wisebram (Guitar, Vocals, Harmonica, and Piano).
Take a listen: