Fresh Track: Wooden Dinosaur “Slow Warm Weight”

Wooden Dinosaur is the moniker for the songwriting of Vermont based writer, guitarist and bandleader Michael Roberts. “Working Weather” is the latest effort from the project and is due out on September 30th. You can pre-order the full record HERE, but in the meanwhile lets dig in….

Roberts has this mellowed character about his voice. Soft but purposeful. Humble but aware of the story that it is trying to pour forth. A smooth quality that floats in this drifting sort of a way. In listening to this particular track I feel an incredlbly relaxed sensation sweep over me. The complementing hammer on acoustic guitar, lazily trodding rhythms and the throbbing cry of the pedal steel painting sepia tinges across the backdrop of his stories lend the perfect partner his voice. And the beautiful harmonies certainly help to lift up that feeling and keep the song soaring. Not in an ethereal sort of way, more of a real and down to earth kind of floating.

When I listen to a tune I look for “that one line”. The cleverly penned string of words that cut you and leave their mark. In the case of “Slow Warm Weight”, Roberts slings them rapid fire at you. There is a definite strength in his writing. A wit that will make you do a double take and “man, why didn’t I come up with that one?”. It simply feels, real. There is no pretense or thesaurus-rhyming dictionary bullshit. I feel like Michael is speaking through his songs in a dialect that he adopts in every day life. His words are genuine…and damn if it isn’t great.

I’m seeing someone somewhere else at the end of a winding road/

Hanging with real people who shit and breath and grow old

Check it out.