Mariee Sioux - Faces in the Rocks

by Frank Gualtier -- 09/15/07

A

sk yourself this: would you be able to hear the words "Mama my vein braider thousand year bone burner" pass your ears from a song without stopping everything you're doing to divert all your attention thatta-way?

Mariee Sioux instantly became one of my favorite artists for doing exactly that to me with the song 'Wild Eyes' from her debut album 'Faces in the Rocks', due to ship this October 1st, 2007.

It's a heritage-theme based folk collection that is filled with just such pros. She has a most curious and intense manner of thinking exactly like a child but articulating like an adult. I'm not sure if that's cute or spooky but it definitely provokes thought.

'Faces in the Rocks' takes you on spirit-piercing word-journeys where one minute you're soaring and the next you're 'Burried in Teeth'.

As for the music itself -- if Simon & Garfunkle had been Native American and gender-swapped I'm convinced Mariee Sioux is probably what they'd have sounded like. Listen to the flow of her finger picking and the rests and pickups in verse -- a surprising lot of common ground.

She has a sweet voice that's playful one minute and verges on angst the next. Combined with the masterful Native American flutes of Gentle Thunder and her own Father Gary Sobonya on mandolin (and a cast of a few other very talented musicians) this album truly comes to life in an intoxicating yet wisely restrained manner.

And though the engineering (Dana Gumbiner, Gentle Thunder, and Mariee Sioux herself) tops it off and really 'takes you there' these are songs of unforgettable melody and verse that are just as easily enjoyed with nothing but Mariee Sioux and her guitar.

Now that's just great folk music.

Wild Eyes by Mariee Sioux
Tiny darling ghost holder
Tiny darling ghost holder
You our soft spirit breather
You our bark skinned weaver
Remember you could weep fire
Remember you could weep fire with wild eyes
With wild eyes, ooo with those wild eyes

If you ring your cells like bells in a garden that
You plant your burdens way deep down in
And water them daily from wells of salty
Guilt for sons who pollinate the deadly
That wild eye, ooo that wild eye

Papa my pine whistler sparrow-eyed sun misser
Papa my pine whistler sparrow-eyed moon blisser
Mama my jaw clincher spirit mouthed ghost dancer
Mama my vein braider thousand year bone burner
Mama my tongue twister thousand pronged antlers
Mama my tongue twister thousant pronged antlers
Mama my vein braider thousand pronged antlers, antlers
And ooo her wild eyes, ooo her wild eyes

So I will ring my cells like bells as you
Bind your father's molecules with roots of silver
Pierce him cedars with eyes like fingers
Picking bloody flowers
His wild eyes, ooo his wild eyes

Papa my pine whistler sparrow-eyed sun misser
Papa my pine whistler sparrow-eyed moon blisser
Mama my jaw clincher spirit mouthed ghost dancer
Mama my vein braider thousand year bone burner
Mama my tongue twister thousand pronged antlers
Mama my tongue twister thousand pronged antlers
Mama my vein braider thousand pronged antlers, antlers
And ooo her wild eyes, ooo her wild eyes

Tiny green moss collector
Sweet tiny green moss collector
Remember you could catch fire
Remember you could catch fire with wild eyes
With wild eyes, ooo with those wild eyes

And once the river is rolling lower
We'll gather lichen from the boulders
We'll keep it dry inside our lockets
We'll put this town down into our pockets
We'll try...

To leave these branch arms behind
The swaying hands of pines
Their needles tugging at your skin
Trying to pull you back deep in their wooden womb
Of a hundred hearts hanging suspended, moth-eaten
Those muscles the size of your fist
All floating around your head
Not knowing who they're a loving
Not knowing how fast they're a pumping
Not knowing how hard they're a beating
Not knowing who they're a punching
Those muscles the size of your fist
All floating around your head
And throwing punches like we throw the stones to
The bottom of river beds
Who knows whose next?
To watch from under the currents
The rapids rapidly raging while rapid
While we're rapidly blinking our wild
Our wild eyes

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