ZapTown

The Wailing Wall
The Low Hanging Fruit
JDUB Records
Rating: 3.2 out of 5

Link: http://www.myspace.com/jesserifkin

It’s hotter than hell out. The heat and the closeness of a July summer day reminds me of the folk music festival I would attend every year throughout high school. Seemed like a very punk thing to do being that it was different than anything else going on in the city. Sitting under a canopy of forest in one of the largest city parks in the country, you could smell the humidity wafting from the trees. You would be lucky if a breeze blew by, sending a faux relief to those trying their hardest to keep their instruments in tune.

What I found out was that I enjoyed the more rough and ready sound of the bluegrass-tinged tunes than the soft and gentle folk music that groups would bounce between, but as a band of today like The Wailing Wall goes into a song like “Speak Not Its Name,” they mimic the sound and essence that echoed through the wallow that the folk stage sat upon. The meditative chant-like aura that grows within the song builds up and prepares your mind for a journey of back porch sermons and barefoot testimonies.

The Low Hanging Fruit is anything but traditional. The sitar and tablas that line the song “Bones Becomes Rainbow” with indie folk rock is a very Beatles like thing to do but feels like when you first discovered R.E.M. using a mandolin on their songs. “For C.M.R.” is a darkly lit serenade that haunts like the ghost of Cat Stevens telling tales about his philosophy. And “Lame Situation” hums like the locust that surrounds you.

Better than Hospital Blooms, the work of Jesse Rifkin takes his twangy vocals a little bit further, conjuring mental images of painted vans and getting tangled in long hair while making out in the park. As dark as Rifkin tries to make it all out to be, The Low Hanging Fruit leaves us with the easy life and the sincerity that it’s okay to slow down.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.2MB)