Wonders on Giants Looking Back without Getting Stuck There

Wōndering on Giants embodies the tradition of songwriting while never being bound by it. With acoustic guitars, rhythmic patterns, and lyrics, it’s a contemplation of landscape and identity with a soothing voice. There’s a presence of the Highland landscape and the openness of Montana, but it’s not one of drama, just of quiet presence.

The music is played with a sense of control. There are gentle weavings of guitars, and the keyboards and basses are complementary and do not compete with the other instruments. The rhythm section is driving the music at a comfortable tempo. The production is warm and has a real sense of being performed. It has the introspective feel of Nick Drake or John Martyn or Van Morrison at his earliest.

What is most apparent, though, is the songwriting emphasis. The lyrics are significant in these instances, conveying meaning in a way that doesn’t rely on the superfluous. There’s a feeling of cyclical time, a meeting of the past and the present in terms of vision.

Those listeners who respond to the records of the mid sixties through the seventies, for instance, will find a familiarity in this song that doesn’t rely on imitation.