Ina May Wool
Rewrite the Ending (2021)
Hoping to rectify a missed opportunity during the pandemic to pay homage to an ambitious collection of songs by one of New York’s more accomplished singer/songwriters, I am now presenting this review of Ina May Wool’s Rewrite the Ending
Some of us look backward and envision past events of loss where this time we win. We try to rewrite the past. Others will pick themselves up and shed the old ghosts. Ina May Wool belongs to the latter group. On Rewrite the Ending, she reviews past events, takes what she needs and moves on.
In “Going Through the Pictures,” Wool sees the fractured pieces of a lost relationship and sings: I’m going through the pictures of all those years / Tryin to make my peace and carry on … Why was I so sure that you were mine? / I don’t know but it’s time to go …
On the title track, she seems to be urging herself forward through the chapters of her life, not recounting specifics, just pushing onward: I keep writing my story a little more every day / Never thought I’d ever have quite so much to say … Hey boys I’m working on the ending / Hey girls it’s a brand new ending / I’m gonna rewrite the ending
For this listener, the pinnacle of the album is “Here in My Bones.” After she was struck down by a motor vehicle in 2018, her recovery was long and arduous. Her word play is razor-sharp as she sings: wheelchair wranglers / angel strangers / cooks and writers / bringing me back again … In the background, the ethereal melody hovers in a shower of plucked guitar strings. It’s mesmerizing.
Other highlights include tributes to progressive warriors Rachel Maddow and Elizabeth Warren.
“Rachel Tells the Story” is performed with a jaunty jazz ragtime shuffle: Rachel tells the story / And spins it back / Til it makes sense to me / I get so woozy from truthiness …
“Thank You, Elizabeth” is a gospel-like, hand-clapping rave-up: Thank you for tryin to save democracy / shining a light on kleptocracy … Thank you for being as smart as you are when stupid / seems to rule the day …
Wool imaginatively combines a young girl’s reach for strength and the momentous Abraham Lincoln Cooper Union speech in “Lincoln on the Streets of New York.” The girl’s masquerade as a shoeshine boy and encounter with Lincoln concludes five years later as she watches the slain president’s funeral cortege, at attention, wearing a union soldier’s uniform: In my uniform of blue and a tear in my eyes / I watched as they bore him slowly by …
“Out Past Yesterday” is a masterful display of imagery, consistent with vivid memories of the simpler, more beautiful days of childhood: I miss the slow unwind of history / told in stories out on porches / in the afternoons when clocks are running slow / and the hot reveal of summer / as loons come in for a landing / in the stillness where the water lilies grow …
At the album’s conclusion, “Going Home” is a clear-eyed look at life’s end: Home to where the heart is / To all the heavens and the hells / of our hereafter / There is no sadness / There is no laughter / We’re going home …
Simple. Concise. Eloquent. In a nutshell, Ina May Wool.
Audiophiles can buy Rewrite the Ending at www.inamaywool.com