Fresh and local: Woodland Telegraph self-assured and thoughtful

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      Screendeath Summersong

      A lack of ambition isn’t a problem for Woodland Telegraph, with Screendeath Summersong the final installment of a Western Canada–inspired trilogy.

      Singer Matthew Lovegrove was previously fixated on the Rockies and the Prairies for Songs for the Willmore Wilderness and From the Fields. On the ruminative Screendeath Summersong technology and the way it interconnects with nature is the inspiration, which explains song titles like “Forests on the Edge of Factories”.

      Lovegrove’s vocals are sweet and self-assured and the playing is beautiful, with mandolin, lap steel, and fiddle fleshing out songs centred around warm acoustic guitar.

      While diversions include soundscapes (“Into the Future [Shop]”) and gothic-lite Americana (“Factory Work”), Woodland Telegraph doesn’t exactly reinvent the modern folk wheel here.

      And that’s okay, because if you’ve ever heard Iron and Wine’s Ghost on Ghost, you know that staying the course isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

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