Hitch Your Booze Cart to Pit Wagon
drinking songs long in the making find their home on self-titled debut album
Zack Katz, photos by Andrea Paulseth |
Remaining as a small blip on the radar of the Chippewa Valley music scene for several years demonstrates a sort of genuine acclimation with the area – worthy of a Wisconsinite “G-pass” in the truest sense. It’s earned by playing the towny bars you’ve grown up around for the sake of your own entertainment and the inhabitants’ and no more.
And though these low-key venues set in the sticks of the Chippewa Valley remain their wheelhouse and source of inspiration, blues-folk trio Pit Wagon has recently become something more assured by rolling into 2015 with its self-titled debut freshly released on Jan. 30.
Black-hearted babies who sharpen knives with vampire teeth and altercations with magical whiskey powerful enough to take money right out of their hands: The members of Pit Wagon prove themselves equal parts heart-breaking and emphatically comical as they join forces to relay tall tales of the Midwest like a group of boozy Roald Dahls.
Formerly Bottle Kids (alluding to yet another trio of lovable northern country folk), Pit Wagon is comprised of glum frontman Matt Vold and a pair of schoolteachers, singer and kazoo virtuoso Emily Jensen and multi-instrumentalist Matthew Mabis.
Vold has been writing material used for the group’s album over the course of the past decade, and Jensen said the current lineup have been invested in renovating and perfecting his work in recent years. Despite all this contemplation before the album’s fruition, Jensen admits the group is still fresh to the idea of performing it. Luckily, this adds some honesty and charm to their act.
“Our stage banter still just sucks,” Jensen said grinning. “Half the time we’re not sure what to do and end up just talking in country accents.”
Jensen, who found her fit by singing along with Vold, said there’s something distinctive about the contrasting blend of his “gravel-y” vocals and her more feminine harmonics. Since joining the group on stage at The Mousetrap for the first time, Jensen has taken careful note Vold’s longevity as a musician.
“Matt has been writing music since he was probably 13, he’s kind of the soul of the band,” Jensen said. “He has this voice that steals the show ... in the best way possible.”
Tangling up in the peculiar throes of emotions on Pit Wagon is as easy for listeners as it is the band. The music is fun for Jensen, but also contemplative of small-town, country-Midwestern themes, she said.
“You could listen to the songs and get really depressed, or you can see them for what they are: the Wisconsin winter sadness with summer drinking in between,” Jensen said. “They’re almost all drinking songs, but there’s also a deeper storyline playing beneath throughout them.”
The group’s newest addition is an important one, as he supplies the greatest range of sound. Mabis is just as likely to be seen playing the banjo and piano as he is to be seen sitting with Vold’s grandmother’s old lap steel guitar. Despite all his contributions, he’s adamant about considering the voices of the group the most essential and indicative part of Pit Wagon’s sound.
“When I came to watch these guys as Bottle Kids, the music was always great, but even now it remains a backdrop for the stories,” Mabis said. “I hope people listen to the words more than anything else. The stories are hilarious -- sad, dark, charming, personal, and impersonal. They don’t take themselves too seriously.”
“And we don’t either,” added Vold.
Pit Wagon will perform a slew of shows over the course of the spring as teaching schedules permit. The real party begins when school’s out for summer.
Find the band online at www.facebook.com/pitwagonmusic.
