Welcome To The Welcome Wagon

Welcome Wagon | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 9, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Asthmatic Kitty
• ASIN: B001IB63D8
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,477 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #70 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Chamber Pop

Editorial Reviews

New album Recorded, produced, and arranged by Sufjan Stevens. The Welcome Wagon observe a musical tradition conjoined with marriage that pays tribute to a long line of iconic couples-Johnny Cash and June Carter, Sonny and Cher, Ike and Tina, Captain and Tennille, and more recently, The White Stripes. This debut album by The Welcome Wagon unveils a ramshackle sing-along enterprise of a Presbyterian pastor (the Rev.Vito Aiuto) and his wife (Monique) wrestling out the influences of folk music, religion, popular culture, and church tradition in a collection of songs that is as soulful as it is good-humored. This gorgeous brew is reflected in the group's repertoire, which unflinchingly consolidates a vast history of "sacred" song traditions: from old Testament psalms, to Presbyterian Psalters of the 17th century, to iconoclastic pop innovators of the 1960s (The Velvet Underground's 'Jesus' ), to charismatic catholics of the 1970s (Lenny Smith), and even into the melancholy lovelorn pop of the 1980s (The Smiths' 'Half A Person'). Armed with a particleboard parlor guitar and a plastic glockenspiel, pastor and wife stumble their way through an arresting catalog of hymns-hallowed and unholy-with the simple desire to know their Maker-and to know each other-more intimately! The result- due, in part, to producer/arranger Sufjan Stevens-is an awe-inspiring collection of hymns, pop covers, and originals that render soulful stunts from quiet skirmishes of home recordings. Sufjan enlivens The Welcome Wagon's quaint haberdashery of songs with epic flourishes, drawing out allusions to honky-tonk, Broadway theater, and funk with the curatorial eye of an over-excited musicologist. --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Help me find my proper place, December 19, 2008

By 

Jonathan E. Barnes (Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Welcome To The Welcome Wagon (Audio CD)

Nestled comfortably in their own space between Contemporary Christian Worship and quirky nerdfolk music, The Welcome Wagon bring the (joyful) noise, as it were. Sufjan Stevens is not afraid of intricate string and horn arrangements, and the record sounds as though a microphone was always on, ready to capture the piano or guitar as a song arrangement was crafted. Vito and wife Monique sing with delicate sweetness and are backed at times with a group of choir-ish singers. All songs on the record are great, some more than others. Songs that stand out to me are Up On A Mountain, Hail To The Lord's Anointed, But For You Who Fear My Name, & Jesus. Highly recommended.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Welcome Wagon., September 21, 2009

By 

Joshua Arthurs "RedBeard" (right behind you) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Welcome to the Welcome Wagon (MP3 Download)

My list of things that are better than The Welcome Wagon

1. World peace
2. sliced bread
3. kittens
and that's really about it.
Get this album and prepare to have your socks knocked clean off.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Unique, Eclectic, January 31, 2009

By 

Andrew Davidson (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Welcome To The Welcome Wagon (Audio CD)

Outstanding. You can definitely see the influence Sufjan has on this group, but that doesn't detract from it for me.