Kowtow Popof Spins ‘Well Wishes’

Wampus artist Kowtow Popof spins the new Wampeters Limited Edition CD Slipcase Set, Well Wishes. From the cradle of early adulthood to the highway of middle age, KP has thoughts on the little pieces that make up the Big Story.

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There are so many great songs in the Wampeters catalog, so many amazing performances, sublime melodies, and excellent lyrics, it’s hard to choose a single aspect that might pull the listener in…

I have a lot of favorite Wampeters performances. On their debut, Screen Test, I get hooked by the spot-on delivery of the line, “You know sometimes…” in “Lock and Load.” Or the feisty crunch of guitar in “Folklore,” the lead-off track to Folk Medicine. Then there’s the manically insistent rhythm section of “(Get Me on a) Train” from Pagan’s Nest, which sounds like a wigged-out Tommy James production on a punk bender. Compare that with the restrained lead-guitar chime in the title track of Bloodline that gives the song an almost orchestral feel. Just as infectious is the intimate sing-speak of “Rope and Knot” from Look What’s Left, a pointed, personal paean to mislaid friendship. Or the playful, joyous “Amorphous, I Love You” (from Hey Judas), a picture-perfect guitar landscape laid over a “Sweet Jane” beat. But there is no better performance on a Wampeters recording than the vocal on Murder Your Darlings’ “Sweet Overkill.” No singing gymnastics, just honesty uttered in every word.

Sometimes it’s the inescapable melody that lures me. There is none more achingly beautiful than the dark chorus of “Heaven Waits.” Or the bluesy Who-meets-Elvis “Infinitiplicate,” the bouncing-ball pop twang of “Both Worlds,” and the brooding Byrdsian folk of “Jupiter and Its Moons.” Not to mention the cascading notes of “Caricature” rolling over you like a revelatory amusement ride, or the heartbreaking chorus of the tragicomic “Tupelo Hotel” stopping you in your tracks. In an alternate universe, the effortlessly elegiac earworm “Anytime” would have been number one with a bullet in any year.

Other times, I tune into message. Wampeters lyrics carry equal weight with the music. There’s the haunting Twain-meets-Conrad obsession of “Riverboat Dream,” the thoughtful missive on connections (both made and missed) of “Then and Now,” and the street-scene battle between the grind of survival and the grasp on one’s dreams in “Steam.” Maybe the ending lines of the slice-of-life Thanksgiving Day tribute “Lions and Bears” say it all: “Sanders isn’t Sayers / and he won’t ever be / but you know… welcome home.” Or maybe it’s the minimalist sense of place in “Bloom” or the questioning sense of self in “Picture Show.” But if one Wampeters lyric evokes the canon, it’s “Pretty Crooked Smile”– the moments of eternity, the happenstances of chance, the longings of loss and belonging, and the art that gets made in the process.

These songs are cast with hope and desperation, through performance, music, and word, and one way or another the listener gets caught. Well wishes, for sure.

Buy Well Wishes at Bandcamp | Amazon.

Kowtow Popof is a singer-songwriter based in Silver Spring, Maryland. His first CD, ‘Songs from the Pointless Forest,’ came out on Wampus in 1993. Since then he has released seven more albums, each a bulletin in an unfolding account of life, art, and the eloquent modeling of self-sufficiency.

About Mark Doyon

I run Wampus, a creative development agency and label for emerging artists and authors. I make records as Arms of Kismet (and sometimes Waterslide), and wrote the novel 'Deep Fried.'