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ACL review: M. Ward
M. Ward and his band played to a super-packed tent, running through 2006’s “Post-War” album. Ward is an entertainer—after a solo acoustic number he brought out a band of five, which included two drummers (and two drum sets), and offered up rocking versions of “Right in the Head,” “Chinese Translation” and “Requiem,” among others.
The only low points came during a few of the lower-key songs, when chatter from the crowd drowned out the band a bit. After a cover of a John Fahey song (Ward produced a Fahey tribute album a few years back and is clearly influenced by Fahey’s fingerpicking), the band pleased the crowd with the loungy and delightful “Rollercoaster” and “Magic Trick,” the lyrics of which he changed so the song was in the first person.
He closed with a cover of Austinite Daniel Johnston’s “To Go Home,” which appears on “Post-War” as well. Part of the joy in watching Ward perform is that he appears to really love making music—he went over his allotted time, and probably would have kept playing if he didn’t have to cede the stage to Jenny Lewis.
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