Pointed Man Band “Between the Waves and the Cardoons” (Music for Families)

Music for both the grown and the still growing

Out March 3, 2017!

“Between the Waves and the Cardoons” had me scratching my head as I checked out the back of the album cover. The third album by Pointed Man Band (debut Swordfish Tango in 2013 and Flight of the Blue Whale in 2016) inexplicably has tracks called “Interlude, No. 1” and “Interlude, No. 3” with no number 2. Nevertheless, I was intrigued by the title and its call to nature and I imagined a lovely album filled with everything under the sun. If you think about everything that exists between our waterways and plants (a cardoon is a thistle-like plant –which is a nice way of saying weed) you have a lot of ground on Earth to cover.

Pointed Man Band is Dan Elliott, a singer/songwriter and multi-instrument musician from Portland, Oregon and I’m not scratching my head over his fantastic third album any longer. While Dan has been on my radar, I haven’t reviewed his albums before now. There is something special about this one. Cardoons feels complete and harmonious and complex …and dare I say it?….sometimes downright joyful! As a parent that still very much feels new in the world; the circle of life, nature, and trying to figure out if I have anything even remotely figured out are topics I can relate to while my daughter, Brooke, can also understand. Songs like “The Waves” are about the beauty of the world while “Owl Song” gets more into how complicated situations can get in life. There’s a mix of fun and whimsy in “A Bird in Hand” which we love. “The Cardoons” is our favorite on the album, with guest singers Jack Forman (Recess Monkey) and Josh Shriber (Josh and the Jamtones), which offers a ‘close the house’ type anthem song to sing with your buddies and save the contemplation of lyrics like ‘you won’t waste your time if time ain’t wasted by you’ for another day. Cardoons is a beautiful collection of songs you can think too much about or let the music carry you away. More and more in life I like to choose the latter. Cheers!

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