Dave Heumann, front man for Baltimore’s long-running Arbouretum, isn’t shy about reaching toward the profound while addressing transformation on the recent Song of the Rose (Thrill Jockey). The elegantly lumbering opening track, “Call Upon the Fire,” announces a need to break free of atrophy and wipe the slate clean, burning something down in order to start over: “Unfolding in the black of night / What’s ruined is restored,” Heumann sings, melding melodic shapes redolent of British folk tradition with a biting hard-rock attack a la Steeleye Span.…
Dave Heumann, front man for Baltimore’s long-running Arbouretum, isn’t shy about reaching toward the profound while addressing transformation on the recent Song of the Rose (Thrill Jockey). The elegantly lumbering opening track, “Call Upon the Fire,” announces a need to break free of atrophy and wipe the slate clean, burning something down in order to start over: “Unfolding in the black of night / What’s ruined is restored,” Heumann sings, melding melodic shapes redolent of British folk tradition with a biting hard-rock attack a la Steeleye Span.…