Review: The Welcome Wagon - Welcome to the Welcome Wagon

The Welcome Wagon are husband and wife duo The Rev. Vito Aiuto and Mrs. Monique Aiuto…that’s right, a pastor and his wife….wait….no wait….come back!  It has to be said that when I have been recommending this album around –  and I have been, to practically everyone I meet – the fact that it is an American album of religious and quasi-religious folk tracks sung by a pastor and his wife has not been an easy sell.  However, see past such fripperies, and there is a fantastic album to be enjoyed.

WTTWW is produced by Sufjan Stevens, who also adds many of the instrumental elements to the album, and released it on his Asthmatic Kitty imprint.  Stevens will be a name well known to anyone with half an interest in the US independent music scene, a veritable folk titan who, amongst writing albums that deal with the Chinese Zodiac and his Christianity, has often spoken of his desire to write an album about every state in the US (so far, only the superb ‘Greetings from Michigan, the Great Lake State’ and ‘Come on Feel the Illinoise’ are extant).  

Stevens’ albums are full of lush orchestration hung around songs and lyrics which feel at the same time both intensely personal and utterly universal.  It is easy to see why SS band member Vito would have jumped at the chance to have such expertise available on production duties.  With Stevens’ presence, however, there is a danger that this album will come across as just another of his many musical side-projects.  Happily,  this is not the case.  Whilst some songs could indeed come straight from his Illionoise off-cuts album ‘The Avalanche’ (notably ‘Sold! To The Rich Man’) he sensibly allows Vito’s songwriting skills more than enough room to speak for themselves.

 

Highlights include delicate covers of the Smiths’ ‘Half a Person’ and ‘Jesus’ by the Velvet Underground, as well as the beautiful album-opener, ‘Up on a Mountain’.  Sung by Monique, it gently lulls you into the right frame of mind to enjoy the rest of what is a wonderful album.  

It would be churlish, however, to try and split tracks from one another.  This cd works best approached as a whole; imagine yourself amongst the youthful population of Vito’s church on a Sunday afternoon, alternately clapping along and listening as the Pastor offers up the fruits of his faith.  Or imagine yourself sat round a campfire in the summer - marshmallows, beer and a guitar.  Any way you imagine it, it's escapism par excellence...