Reach For Me Through That Dark Tree Line

Minocqua, WI

My tour of Wisconsin music continues with the sunrise over Lake Minocqua and Corey Chisel. Corey's classic American songwriting is perfect for this morning's still and chilly longing. While outside reviewers seem to want every Wisconsin album to be written in a cabin, this one really does belong in the woods. As I sit outside in my moose pajama pants, wrapped in three blankets and stealing wireless from the nearby hotel, its easy to chuckle at all the reviews of "Cabin Ghosts" that mischaracterize Corey's hometown of Appleton (the sixth largest city in Wisconsin with a population of 70,000) as a "small rural city far from urban society". But I know what they're trying to say. Jonk probably captures it best, that Corey sings about a life of growing up and staying loyal to a small town. Crusing up and down Main Street; marrying a high-school sweetheart; working a full day as a machine technician at an injection molding factory; staking out an early picnic table at the park for the annual summer festival; drinking, over-drinking, and switching to cola at the nearby bar of choice. It's all terribly stereotypical, romantic, and true.

Corey Chisel & The Wandering Suns A Home In The Woods (mp3) [Appleton, WI]