[Badman]
4 stars
Folk trio walks in simplicity
Sometimes you just want to
listen to music and not have to work at appreciating it—to
hear songs about childhood nostalgia and married love and
changes in the weather, without losing the sentiments in
convoluted arrangements and cryptic lyrics. Don and Karen
Peris of The Innocence Mission founded the school of
simplicity from which artists like Denison Witmer and Rosie
Thomas graduated, and they prove with this record that music
isn’t necessarily more vital when it’s complicated—perhaps
true creativity lies in the ability to distill a song down
to what’s beautiful and useful. Their low-key, almost
childlike folk music doesn’t plead for your attention or
attempt to break musical ground, but that’s what’s so
refreshing. Like yellow fall leaves that settle atop your
shoes after the wind pushes through a grove of trees, these
songs reach your ears just as gracefully.
Kate Kiefer
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