A low-tech van gets Baltimore band Arbouretum from gig to gig on its national tour, but high tech should be credited with delivering them to where they are today.
When the band?s song “Pale Rider Blues” showed up as a free download on the Web, the buzz created a breakthrough moment for the band, member Dave Heumann said. Of course, consistency of lineup and an improved stage show has also helped.
“We?re not a total train wreck now,” Heumann said of the stage show. “We have been working pretty hard with the same people. Everyone has learned the material really well.”
The result is the band?s second album, “Rites of Uncovering,” which Heumann said was written over a few years. Some call it somber and serious, an analysis with which Heumann does not totally disagree.
“It doesn?t have a singular theme running through, but I think perhaps it is pervaded by a general sense of melancholy,” he said. “I would beg to differ with anyone who says it is depressing.”
That melancholy has left a few critics scratching their heads a bit.
“Throughout the first couple of songs, the jury stays out on whether it?s to be just serious or overly serious: ?Signposts and Instruments? and ?Tonight?s a Jewel? display all the stylistic tics that some listeners, myself included, will have to work a little to get past,” wrote Pitchfork?s Brian Howe, who goes on to call the album “a sometimes exquisite folk-rock album.”
Heumann seems pleased with the overall positive reviews but declined to single out any tunes that he thinks are especially worthy of praise.
“The themes of searching and exploration” are what set this record apart, he said. “They are present in the lyrics and also how the music is played.”
But will the band continue in this direction? Hard to tell, said Heumann.
“It will probably go in a different direction,” he said. “I don?t know what it will be right now. … I?m not really looking at a different direction, but we?ll discover it after the fact.”
IF YOU GO
Arbouretum with David Karsten Daniels
» Venue: Current Space/Gallery, 30 S. Calvert St.
» Time: 9 p.m. Saturday
» Tickets: $8 at the door
» Info: www.currentspace.com
