Ben Weaver is a folk musician and poet from Minnesota. He has recently released a new album, I Would Rather Be a Buffalo. Weaver’s music has always been rooted in nature, using sparse banjo and guitar as an accompaniment to his plain and pure poetics. This is real back-to-basics folk music, recorded live on a reel-to-reel tape machine in a Minnesotan barn over the space of just two days. It’s additive-free and woodsmoke-scented, with nods to the likes of Thoreau and Whitman, one big love song to everything the human race hasn’t yet destroyed.
The album opens with ‘Divided By Animal’ which sets the tone for the album, a finger-picked paean to a simpler life and Weaver’s organic personal philosophy. It’s full of lines like “Whatever happens that’s all I ever want“ and ”Not rich by what I own but rich by what I let go.“ The second track, ‘Rambling Bones,’ follows a similar thread, opening with:
”The hills look like different kinds of fur in the morning
dirty wool-torn clouds blowing through the chinks in my day
neck-deep in the brambles holding pieces of the beast
bring the dogs to the river where the sea used to be.“
The song is the story of a wandering man, of a man who’s life is governed not by the economy or advertising agencies but by the rhythms of the natural world, a man ”out there looking for the last blank space on the map“. It reminded me strongly of a novel I read recently, The Road Home by Jim Harrison, and one character in particular (named Nelse) who wanders around America, living off the land and spending his days doing surveys of the local wildlife. Lots of Weaver’s lyrics seem incredibly relevant to the book, even when he isn’t describing the natural world. The line ”Freckles on her shoulders like birds on a deer / there’s nothing she won’t tell you after two sips of beer“ is especially apt as the only thing that can rival birds and plants for Nelse’s attention is the influence of a certain young woman.
The fourth track, ‘Dear Brown Earth’, is another stand-out, beginning with the ambient chattering of birds and the line ”Some days I go waking with the dog just to go where a dog wants to go.“ The song sounds like a frosty morning, you can almost see the watery light falling through gathering clouds and feel winter on the wind as dry browns leaves blow in drifts. ‘Low Ride’, the final track, is perhaps the best of all. An epic of over eight minutes, it has a wonderfully gentle and reflective cadence, flickering with firelight and the warmth of loved ones. It’s really, really beautiful and one of my favourite songs of the year so far.
”For you I’d burn a house down
I’d break a star from the sky
snow in the snow oaks
come sit by the fire
we’ll talk about the old days
and whittle out the night
get dizzy in the treetops
while the coyotes cry“
To support the new album, Weaver is embarking on a national bicycle tour entitled It’s All the River, in which he will perform at farms, bookstores, bicycle shops and small music venues. The tour will see him follow the course of the Mississippi, from Minneapolis to New Orleans. He aims to use volunteer projects (such as planting native species, prairie restorations and river cleanups), along with songs and poetry to connect audiences to the river and surrounding land. Check the list of tour dates if you’re interested in catching a show,
I’ll leave you with some words from the man himself, taken from his micro-site set up by Banjo Brothers:
“I Would Rather Be a Buffalo came from the thin places, in the forests I wander and the cities I ride. On most days there is a few feet of space between this world and the spirits, the places where I found I Would Rather Be a Buffalo were worn down to an inch or less. I’m willing to risk sentimentality or an over sincere jest to say these things, to preserve the rivers and box canyons, the needlework light in the tall pines, and the blank spaces on the map for wolves, bears and my heart to wander.”
You can buy I Would Rather Be a Buffalo via Hymie’s Records.