Lots of Music from Katie Dahl’s ‘Ordinary Band’

Being a rootless newspaper person for most of my adult life – an observer rather than a participant in the affairs of wherever I live – I’ve always admired writers and musicians who revel in their roots.

But I draw the line when those roots involve a professional sports team. The national obsession with sports is, to my mind, one of our greatest social problems and hearing songs pledging allegiance to things such as green and gold make me want to resign from the human race.

So it was with some trepidation that I approached Katie Dahl’s new CD, Ordinary Band, due to the title of the seventh song, “Lombardi Avenue.”

I steeled myself for a nostalgic paean to the Packers, but I came away from the experience of listening to “Lombardi Avenue” with a better understanding of why a silly game can be so important to so many, which says much about the masterful observational songwriting of Katie Dahl. She nails it.

There is nothing ordinary about Ordinary Band. The 11-song CD begins with a majestic acoustic introduction before Katie’s fine, clear alto enters, singing, “I think of you when August falls and children turn their daisies into crowns…”

And we’re off into achingly beautiful musical territory with the help of Katie’s husband, Rich Higdon, on upright bass and Eric Lewis artfully manning a multitude of stringed instruments (he also served as producer). With Katie on acoustic guitar throughout, they form the core of musicians.

As I listened to Ordinary Band and then listened again, my mind, needing to make these associations, tried to decide who Katie Dahl’s voice reminded me of. It was as she came to the soaring conclusion of the song “Young Men,” I thought, Natalie Merchant without the rasp.

Speaking of “Young Men,” there is a line that made me stop and savor its richness: “Those boys live for summer, it’s like honey here / it flows sweet and slow and golden through the fields.”

A press release that accompanied the music said Katie, Rich and Eric “recorded the bulk of the album one snowy February week in Door County.

“A wealth of other musicians lent their talents to the album from seven other studios in six different states, including renowned folk fiddler Tracy Grammer, sought-after Nashville multi-instrumentalist Rory Hoffman, Chicago drummer Mike August (JT and the Clouds/Birds of Chicago), California singer-songwriter Claudia Russell, and Wisconsin singer Amanda Rigell (of Madison band Count this Penny). The album was mixed in part by Grammy-nominated engineer Kevin Houston (Patty Griffin); additional mixing assistance came from acclaimed songwriter Jonathan Byrd.”

Here’s a shout-out to Rory Hoffman, who performs several important functions on the album, including accordion and harmonica, but, as a habitual whistler and fan of whistling, his whistling on the whimsical “Ballad of the Lazy Susan and the Dumbwaiter” is about the best I’ve heard.

If Katie’s 10 original songs are the meal, for dessert she offers a bluegrass cover of the 1995 Hanson hit “MMMBop.”

The press release also mentions that Katie launched a Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $17,000 toward the album’s completion, and that Ordinary Band is her first album to be released on an external label, Waterbug Records, Chicago’s premier folk label.

Official release date of Ordinary Band is June 14. A CD release concert featuring Eric Lewis and Rich Higdon will be held at 8 pm Sunday, June 14, at Door Community Auditorium (dcauditorium.org). For more about Dahl and her music, visit KatieDahlMusic.com.