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He’s played in Andy Dick’s band, acted in Six Feet Under, and penned songs for Scooby Doo, but Minneapolis-born, LA-based Willie Wisely struggled to find his rocker niche. His studious songwriting and theater-trained vocal chops slotted him in the Too Slick for Indie Rock box, and his obvious fondness for obscure sounds beloved by record collectors tagged him too offbeat for the mainstream.

By asking himself throughout the recording process of his latest album if the Beatles could have played his new songs on the Apple Records rooftop at the end of Let It Be, Wisely finally found his proper sound. He stripped away the gloss that coated his previous discs to reveal a classicism that suits the timelessness of his tunes. Low-key and confidential where he once was hammy, Wisely piles on the harmonies, layering his arrangements like a hairdresser would sculpt a shag hairdo. There’s nothing here that’s too deep, and that’s okay: Sunny tracks like “California” float on a breezy lyricism that befits a loving craftsman, not a tortured artist. At a time when even Avril Lavigne hits reference bygone power-pop, Wisely’s nostalgia for a soft-rockin’ bell-bottomed groove no longer seems like a liability.

The name “Willie Wisely” has been music to discerning pop fans’ ears for well over a decade now, but he’ll be the first to admit his albums have thus far failed to penetrate the wider marketplace, despite reams of positive reviews and a fervent fanbase. With his latest release, titled simply WISELY, he hopes to change all that– and was willing to chat with Popdose during part of a 14-hour drive between gigs in order to help further his cause. If you’re somehow unfamiliar with the magic of Wisely’s songs, prepare to be enlightened…

Popdose: Where are you right now?
Wisely: I think I’m near Jacksonville, Florida. When I MapQuest for these gigs, I never pay attention– I only know I need to turn in 400 miles. Daytona Beach! There, that’s where I am. Started the morning off in Richmond, Virginia, so today I’ve been doing a good chunk of driving. I’m playing tonight in Melbourne, Florida, which I think is near Tampa.

PD: Sounds like you’re in the thick of promoting the new album.
W: Yep, yep, lots of touring. This is something like date number 73 since October.

PD:The new record came out in January, on Oglio. How did you end up with them?
W: I was working with Andy Dick– I was producing and co-writing an album for him, and it was suggested to me that we approach Oglio, because they have George Lopez and some other big names I don’t know, ’cause I don’t follow comedy, but they’re the go-to label for that sort of stuff. I always knew the president of the label had a pop music heart as well, but really, I was just approaching him on the Andy Dick record; there was a spoken-word album in the can and we were working on the musical project, so I went to them and said “Why don’t you release this?” and they said “Great!”

I was sort of the point man for keeping Andy involved in the promotion of the record, and I got to see what a great label Oglio is– and they got to see that I’m easy to work with. I sent them a rough edit of the video for “Through Any Window” before I sent them the album, actually, and asked them what I should do with it. Mark at Oglio said “Holy shit! What should you do? We should sign you!” We signed up pretty quickly after that. I sent them the rough edit of the album, and it all came together. There were no attorneys involved. (Laughs)

PD:Andy Dick! There are obviously hidden depths to your career that I didn’t know about.
W: Yeah, I don’t like to emphasize it, ’cause he’s a friend. A great friend.

PD: When I saw that “Through Any Window” was on this album, I briefly assumed this was a reissue of 2006’s Parador.
W: Well, the Jenna Fischer video, to me, packed such a wallop, I just had to remix the song and release it just barenaked on this new album. I shamelessly did that, because I love the song, and I knew the great wider world hadn’t heard Parador, and I knew it would help introduce new people to my music. And musically, it made sense– I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think it fit, but it seemed like the gateway to my next record.

PD:PARADOR was the first I’d heard from you since SHE, way back in ’96– I missed TURBOSHERBET in ’97– and for awhile, a number of your older albums were going for pretty insane prices on the used market, but now they’re available for download…
W: Yeah, all of my albums except for PARLEZ-VOUS FRANCAIS? are available from the download shops– I took Parlez-Vous down because it was a record I made while the Willie Wisely Trio was sort of disbanding, and I found all these tracks that we left off that probably would have been better off on, so I want to do a major re-release. I’m taking it away for awhile as I plan all that. It’ll be sort of a deluxe reconfiguration of that album.

It’s kind of neat– I got together that original band back in February, and we actually re-recorded some things, so it’ll be this sort of crazy, over-a-decade-between-sessions finishing of the album. Now that we’re not all drunk and neurotic, we can make sense of what was a great band.

PD:For a guy like you, who has seen titles go in and out of print, the Internet must be a real boon.
W: It is. It’s fun to say “I have a rich history, and you probably don’t know about it.” I feel like it sets me apart, ’cause there are a lot of younger artists and older artists you’ve heard about, but I happen to be an older artist who’s still emerging, and that puts me in a unique place, I think. I feel this arc in my career is going to be a slow and steady kind of thing. It’ll build until I’m 80 or 90. The notion of making rock & roll as an octegenarian, and doing it in an artistically credible way, is exciting.

For my next record, I’m definitely considering plans for a late CD release. I’m feeling like a digital release might be the way to start out. Or I might go vinyl, digital, CD. What pisses me off about CDs– to me, mp3s are a substandard item, so the fact that they’re kinda bought, sold, traded and passed around in kind of a casual way doesn’t really piss me off. But what really does piss me off is all those promo copies of CDs being sold on Amazon. I mean, I work so hard on an album, and the day it’s released, there are a couple dozen copies for sale at half the price with the barcode punched out. It’s insulting enough that people chose not to review it, or not to play it on the radio station, but then to turn around and make a buck off of me…

I don’t mean to sound bitter, and I’m very happy with the job Oglio is doing. I don’t want to come off as being at all critical of the label. I’m really not. And what’s even more exciting to me than the digital-retail thing is the social-networking thing. I mean, I’ve got a list of 3,000-plus people who have proactively reached out to me through the Internet– it’s amazing. I tried to get in on that whole folk house concert circuit years ago, thinking they might not mind a Beatles-based guy, and I was soundly rejected. I’m a good performer, but there’s a certain fascism in that crowd, so I thought “fine,” and I e-mailed my list, and I got 70 offers! I strung together my whole fall tour– and I could only make a fraction of those work in terms of routing. Doing this on a one-to-one basis– it’s such a blast, not only feeling the appreciation of people who enjoy your music, but sending your appreciation back to them. It’s a great– oh, it just boggles my mind.

PD:This new album feels to me– as you kind of alluded to in your comment about “Through Any Window” fitting in– like it’s of a piece with PARADOR, which marked the debut of a new, more…pensive Willie Wisely.
W: I actually have a record in the can that’s full of the more fruit-striped music, if you will. I haven’t stopped writing it, just stopped emphasizing it. It all involved purchasing a home in Minneapolis, renting it out, moving to Los Angeles, deciding what kind of music I wanted to make, who I wanted to write with…it took awhile. I think it was almost exactly eight years between records. Also during that time, I had a band in Minneapolis called the Conquerors– straight up Kinks, Zombies, kind of ’60s stuff. I was still very busy.

California changed me, though– it’s just that simple. I wanted to choose a mood, and you know, I think I’ve failed at that. When I sequence records, I actually enjoy that feeling of boom, pow, make ’em laugh; boom, pow, make ’em cry. I don’t listen to one-trick pony recording artists, and I don’t intend to be one myself. Whether that makes me more or less marketable, you can pretty much guess.

PD:Overall, your tongue seems not to be in your cheek as often as it was before, which makes sense– a lot of time has passed. A lot of things must have happened.
W: Yeah. Well, first of all, I fell very deeply in love. I married my wife in ’03, and we started talking about babies shortly thereafter, and there was just no compulsion to write about sleeping with girls anymore. It seemed an insult to this profound bliss that I’d found with this woman. That was another major thing that happened in those eight years, was that I just wanted my music to have this sense of gravity to it that it hadn’t had before. As much as I like that old material– and still play healthy, healthy doses of it in concert, and enjoy the hell out of it– I wanted my music to have more gravity. Sorry, I can’t think of a better word.

PD:Obviously, you were dealing with a pretty significant backlog of material when you started making albums again. How old are the songs on Wisely?
W: I think the oldest song on there is from 2002, so they were all from a point where I was already established in Los Angeles. When people tell me the album reminds them of America, or a little bit of an Eagles album, and then they find out I live in Laurel Canyon, the whole thing really makes sense. I saw a picture of Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, and Stephen Stills the other day, and it was taken on a hill like a hundred feet from my house. I’ve been told by neighbors who have been there for ages, you know, “Oh, Jimi Hendrix did this over there,” or “Graham Nash used to rent that property”– it’s just a groovy-ass place to be.

And the whole record, besides the tracks we did in Sweden, the whole thing was recorded in Laurel Canyon. The album’s California feel also occurred by dint of me working with my co-producer, Petur Smith— he and I really wanted to make a record that was stripped as much as possible of nostalgia or any sense of showing off. I believe that my ’90s releases were very showy, and I’m not necessarily ashamed of that; I just wanted to see how my songs floated without being showboats.

PD:Some reviews of the new album have focused pretty heavily on what people feel is its fairly somber tone. Was that deliberate, or do you even hear it?
W: You know, I think people hear what they want to hear, and thank God for that. I’m tired of answering the question, “What’s that song about?”– I tell the audiences at my shows what the songs are about, but honestly, each of my songs is about four or five different things, so I can change my story every night. You can’t play these songs night after night unless their meanings adapt themselves to your life, and my songs are open to interpretation to me, so I assume they’re going to be that way to everybody else. “Through Any Window” has a darkness to it, but then it’s all about light– blue and green and red– and yeah, the children get on the schoolbus and they’re all sad, but there’s obviously a magnificent love affair that happens somewhere in the chronology of the song.

I don’t know what to say. The song “It’s Gonna Be Beautiful” is about what happens when two people hit the sheets– I don’t know how sad that is. And the last song, “I’ll Be Singing” (download), I wrote to my wife for our wedding. It’s so emotional, it’s almost silly to me. I’ve never even played it live in all the dates I’ve done since the record’s been out. To show that much emotion…you know, I was listening to Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely,” and sort of marveling at how it’s just flat out, you know, “I had a baby girl and I love her.” The song is so simple that for decades I missed that. It’s funny how joy can go unseen, but arch sadness sometimes pokes through much more quickly. People love their artists to be tortured, you know, and that drives me up the wall. It really does. You know, I hope you’re digging Chet Baker because of that distinct tone and that amazing voice. Please don’t love him for falling out of a window, or being able to play with dentures or whatever. Music should be judged for musical reasons, not its backstory or its supposed vibe.

PD:With the new album, it feels like you’re asking– trusting– your audience to follow you somewhere, and stay there for a certain period of time. It isn’t an album that fully reveals itself to you during the first listen.
W: Oh, absolutely. It’s so understated, that people are often surprised, or a little disappointed. But you know what? If Radiohead is the band for this generation…they’re nothing but understated. All Radiohead albums are third-listen records. Neil Young’s Harvest. The American version of Revolver. I’m excited to see how this album unfolds for people. I didn’t have a lot of expectations for the first few months, but I’m hopeful that it’ll be meaningful for years. It’s got so much understatement built into it that I feel like it’ll be a record for all times– there’ll never be a time when you put it on and it sounds dated, or wrong. Whatever it doesn’t accomplish in ’08, I think it’ll accomplish in 2010.

If there’s one person whose opinion on music we trust, it would be the one of writer/director/producer James Gunn. We read through Gunn that “Willie Wisely Is Playing Tonight in LA” (thank goodness for MySpace). We checked out Wisely and the rest is Pop-Rock Candy Mountain history.

From his home page: “With a foot in Silverlake and a hand in Hollywood Wisely played Twister under the palm fronds. He chatted up Beck at parties, enthused about Eleni Mandell, and got cast in the first episode Six Feet Under. He released another album with now fellow Midwest expat Fields, composed a few indie soundtracks, and produced a wide range of artists. Time flew. The opportunity came to work with producer Linus of Hollywood and the resulting PARADOR revealed another leap forward. The LA Times quickly declared it his “most accomplished album.” Jenna Fischer of The Office enthused on her blog and wait, that’s her in the video for “Through Any Window.”

“In the meantime Wisely became Mr. Wisely with a Mrs. and, some time later, Daddy Wisely, soon to be double deluxe gate-fold. He wrote, recorded, erased, recorded, and wrote. With 76 acoustic demos in-hand Wisely called his friend Petur Smith and they went down into the basement.

“I was painfully aware that spending six months working on an album, earning little or no money, was gonna be a huge burden on my family, while Kay sat listening to drum takes through the floor, gestating our 2nd kid. There could be no artifice. Just beauty. All architecture. No musicals.”

Pop-Rock Candy Mountain recently spent some time chatting with its good buddy Wisely about the new record, really geeky technical stuff and what’s next for the LA Troubadour ( and no, not the popular nightclub).

PRCM: Describe your creative process—do you use a four-track recorder or Pro-Tools? How do things go from ideas to a Wisely song?
Wisely: In fact, I demo many of my songs with drum loops stolen from my years of cassette four-tracking. I have a digital studio in my home, and made the “Wisely” record there, except when we recorded in Sweden, and a couple tracks in Minneapolis.

For this record I had compiled more acoustic guitar demos than ever. Almost 80. My co-producer Petur Smith chose the songs he felt played well together and we fully arranged and recorded those. Most of the vocals you hear on the record come from my demos… we tried to stay true to those early vocal performances. We built the band around the voice. Does that show?

PRCM: What are some things that influenced both the sound and songwriting of Wisely?
W: Well for this record, the sadness in the songs come from the time before Ella was born in 2005, our first kid and daughter. All the upbeat subject matter and music feel comes from whatever Ella brought with her. Fatherhood has impacted me profoundly. Winston, our little nine month old son now adds to that love… and watching those two kids show each other love, often times with unprompted gestures, is the greatest joy I’ve known.

PRCM: How were you able to give Wisely such a warm feel? Did you use vintage gear? Why do Fender Rhodes always sound so amazing?
W: People like the Rhodes because of how it phases back and forth,actually many people hate exactly that element of it’s sound. It was built to mimic a vibraphone, methinks… a more portable vibraphone…which has circular mechanical flaps that make the sound go to and fro like that. But here’s the surprise… we only used Wurlitzer Piano on Wisely, no Rhodes. Listen to Paul Simon’s “Still Crazy After All These Years” and you’ll hear the difference. Tommy Barabarella, who played those tracks is an awesome keyboardist… toured and recorded with Prince for six years!!! So I credit him with the fantastic sound.

The vintage sound of the tracks comes mostly from Chuck Zwicky, who treated the record with a fantastical series of analog compressors and amps. Chuck actually delivered us the same record with a totally different sound on his first draft. We then asked for a different treatment and within days came a wholey different beast. Chuck is wildly versatile. Again, you’d be surprised at how much mixers can influence a record. Maybe one day I’ll release those mixes for fun.

PRCM: Did you play a majority of the instruments on the new album?
W: Petur Smith heard my songs and as co-producer, made the excellent decision to play the bass and drums himself. He knew exactly what he wanted, and knew exactly what those vocal tracks were begging for. I play most of the guitars and backing vocals and many keys… but I wouldn’t say I play most instruments. I did more programming and sample manipulation than keys.

PRCM: You’ve told me that you’ve played “living rooms” etc. across America. Do you enjoy touring and meeting new people along the way?
W: My manager tells me I’m TOO available to my fans, mostly because of my love for these private events. Also due to my addiction to email, I wind up getting close with people who express their having dug my songs. I suppose if I were more of a prick (Bob Dylan) I could scare the universe into giving me greater renown… but I don’t care to behave that way… in fact Paul McCartney is a great model of being a pleasant person, but a shrewd business man… except apparently when it comes to pre-nuptial agreements.

PRCM:What’s your vision for Wisely in 2008?
W: Finish my next records that are mostly done, one produced with my Willie Wisely Trio band mates (early 90s band) with Ed Ackerson, and also another record with John Fields who did my SHE and TURBOSHERBET albums. This is really a question for my management, as I have a very hard time setting out how time will be shaped. I’m good with details–the details of making music and playing shows… careers are made of other things… so I just keep scheming about how to get my idea for a stage musical made, how to finish those records, how to play over in Japan with more frequency (going again in May) and how to stop working on it all until two AM every morning. I need to keep letting the songs guide me.

From the opening note of On My Way, the first song on Wisely, (Willie) Wisely’s new album, be prepared to get hooked. “On My Way” is my favorite song of 2008. It’s that rare type of song that is so catchy and warm it reminds one of going to the grocery store with their mother in 1975, listening to “Top Of The World” by The Carpenters blaring on the AM radio.

I love Am radio rock– The Carpenters, Sweet, Andy Kim, America, Bread, The Box Tops, The Archies, etc. Although Wisely may be the perfect soundtrack for riding the California coast, it is way more than that. Like Fancey, the brainchild of New Pornographers member Todd Fancey, which is one of my favorite bands, it reaches far beyond the warm production values with songs that are extremely well-written and catchy, so catchy in fact, you’re going to want to hear them again…and again and again.

“It’s Gonna Be Beautiful” is another standout track on an album full of great songs, as is “Through Any Window”, a piece of acoustic pop that’s very reminiscent of The Beatles and has a video starring Jenna Fisher.

Like Beck’s The Golden Age, Fancey’s Fancey, The Autumn Defense’s Circles and the Neil Young masterpiece Harvest, Wisely is an album that will fit perfectly against the backdrop of a setting sun, whether you’re in California or Alabama. But while sunsets never last, Wisely shall always exist.

Los Angeles’ Wisely has this familiar feeling to it, kind of like the band, America, and their big hit, “Ventura Highway”. If that doesn’t lift the skirt, anyone that can get Jenna Fisher (PAM) from the OFFICE to star in their video must be doing something right. Getting love at radio from KROQ, KCRW as well as Paste and Harp Magazines. A gorgeous song!

February brings us a rock-star. Yes, that’s right, rock-star (albeit in a lower-case, humble way). From Los Angeles, singer-songwriter Wisely . A performer with seemingly bullet-proof critical raves, Wisely’s beautifully melancholy video featuring Jenna Fischer (of NBC’s The Office) recently brought Wisely to a new wider audience.

Fans of Michael Penn’s raw, reflective snapshots of the human condition (or those of Jason Falkner and Owsley for that matter) will appreciate Wisely’s exceptionally well-crafted songwriting ethic– brimming with heartfelt immediacy, melody, with a finish that is deliciously hummable. According to Entertainment News, his is music “Like Lennon and McCartney, Ray Davies and others of that ilk, he knows how to weave his way through songs that are straight-ahead, and yet still sensuous and seductive.”

Willie Wisely has been a veteran of the power pop scene since SHE in 1996. Every album he’s done has been a winner and he tells me about his latest, simply titled “Wisely” and a few other things. Go to www.evocativepop.com to learn more about the album.

Tell me about your experiences with PARADOR and this album. All this activity the past two years and not much of a peep since 1997 (TURBOSHERBET). What happened during the “lost years” other than a greatest hits album?

WW: Recently the speed at which I work increased. Don’t know why… maybe having kids now. WISELY was cut quickly compared to PARADOR. Basically, it took me half a decade to discover that I will never stop being a recording artist and that I must commit 100% to it. The new label sensed this, and that’s why “Wisely” is gonna take a long walk on my behalf, and bringing new people to my music. I do love this new record so much. It’s breezy and spacious!

Also during those quiet years, my vinyl-only band The Conquerors (1996-1999) was very active with a couple releases on Get Hip. We really only played in the Twin Cities, and rocked the Vox Continental and other period-piece instruments, and slacks. I wanted to be in a “band” for a while, where it wasn’t my face at stake all the time. It ended in an on-stage fist fight in Atlanta with me and the guitarist… so I’m assuming it didn’t work out very well. They still play without me, and without my songs, and without my slacks. I also wrote like mad, wrote a couple hundred songs in those 8 years, and established myself in LA as a producer (produced a record for comedian Andy Dick… among others.

Do you think the internet has granted you more or less control over your music and how it’s released?

WW: Less, because my music is stolen all the time. I no longer get music/software via PTP, because it was corrupting my soul. However, more control, in light of the fact that impact is instantaneous and fans come from so many places… places that I can’t imagine. Everyday my music turns up somewhere I didn’t put it… a wonderful development… and a growing fanbase is, ironically, a mechanism of control.

Who do you think your harshest critic has been (aside from yourself, of course)?
WW: Everyone’s greatest critic, including say a Springsteen or Prince, are the people who reject their music upon first listen. People who reject one’s music out of hand often have the most illumination to offer in regards to why aesthetically it sucks… but of course an artist will not have the time or will power to withstand all that… so the best criticism will always go unheard. Luckily my music never sucks to everyone.

What artists inspire you, or inspire competitive feelings in you?
WW: Weird question, almost contemptuous, but I’ll answer. Simple: Prince. He dances like James Brown, plays guitar better than anyone alive, writes smash hit songs, indulges his quirks, suffers no fools, looks awesome, and does everything on his own terms. My best shows will make hilarious attempts to be a facsimile to his… hilarious because they fail, in that self-aware kind of way. For instance, a few months ago I was dancing and the mic stand hit me in the balls. Everyone laughed… but it wasn’t funny to one person in the room. Even though it was. (Ouch. But you must admit audiences love a good crotch hit.)

You’ve been recently married and had a baby (congratulations, by the way), which are pretty mature, adult things to do. Will you still be able to write from the same perspectives and the same themes as you have in the past?
WW:It changed. Ten years ago my music was about love and infidelity… Now it’s about love and fidelity.

The new album “Wisely” has a very West Coast feel. Where did you grow up and what where your influences at that point and how have they changed?
WW: I grew up under the liquor cabinet where my parents kept James Taylor, Simon & Garfunkel, Donovan, Rod Stewart and the Beatles. NO big surprises there. With WISELY I simply wanted to make a record that sounded stripped of pretense and nostalgia. Everyone keeps saying it sounds like the west coast… does that mean I failed to delete all nostalgia?

Do you prefer “William” or “Willie”??
WW:I answer to Bill (high school friends), Billy (parents), William (the IRS), and Willie (people that meet me face to face), and Wisely (new fans). I love it all. It’s helpful to have a name for each of my egos.

Are you in touch with any band-mates of the Willie Wisely Trio?
WW: The Trio, Greg Wold (trombone), Peter Anderson (drums), James Voss (Upright bass) and I reunited after 14 years apart and recorded a new record. It’s all but mixed. I may or may not release it next because there’s another record produced with John Fields that’s also largely complete. I’ll know more soon.

Thanks for the interview, I can’t wait to hear the next solo project or the reunited Trio.

Willy Wisely’s been soldiering on for over a decade now, and in that duration of bands formed and broken up, solo records released and quietly appreciated, and who knows how many tours, he’s evolved into a mononamed singer-songwriter who kisses his Paul McCartney dreams with nice touches of California pop. You can hear it in “Cracked World View,” where his vocal rides gently into the top of the frame as the music sways with plenty of the downtown LA sound for which Jon Brion and Aimee Mann have become bookends. “Tokyo Arbor,” too, has the sort of jaunty melody Wings-era Paul might have liked to dazzle with. But while it’s just a thing to compare an artist to Macca, it’s the way Wisely’s songs seem to grow right out of the basement they were recorded in. They have a homey feel, just like that early Paul solo material, but that’s tempered with a modernism that’s clearly meant to make this the record that’ll finally get Wisely’s records into the hands of mid-level professionals who buy their records at Starbucks. This might also be why he self-titled a record at this veteran point in his career– in a way, WISELY is his reintroduction.

You can’t make a record this California without including a tribute to the state and its aesthetic, and Wisely does with “California,” which he gets away with rhyming with “I adore ya” and “how come no one warns ya” on the strength of the song’s slick but unpredictable arrangement. There are quieter moments here, too; his first-person vocal is right in your ear on “Nothing but Wind,” which craftily blends moody plunks of piano with weird snippets of backwards guitar, vintage keys, and the sense of driving east into the sunrise. “I’d like, no I’d love to have a writer’s career,” he sings, almost like a conversation on the edge of an argument. “Topping your insults and growing my beard.” It’s the sort of velvety self-reflection that a guy who’s been around this much is allowed. Other album highlights include “Vanilla,” where Wisely’s power-pop background rings out once again, and “Through Any Window,” which returns again to his two main muses, this time around the Paul-ish vocal tinging the song’s promise of sunlight grayer with the suggestion that getting older can even make the prettiest mornings seem a little bleak sometimes. Luckily, this is followed by the effortless and bright closer “I’ll be Singing,” where Wisely sings of the first time he and his main squeeze first made love. The persistence of memory is a value-add to aging.

Most definite top song / recording of the year. Plus, you can’t go wrong with having Jenna Fisher (aka the Office’s Pam Beasley) in the video!
by William Campbell on 02/04 at 08:10 AM

cool… that’s the chick from the office!
by suade on 02/04 at 08:53 AM

Pop vocal perfection + pop sensibility in production + solid pop lyrics = best pop record of 2008.
by Tim Kelly on 02/04 at 01:31 PM

Great song, great video with Jenna, see him live too if you can, good show.
by Doug on 02/04 at 01:49 PM

I absolutely love this song!  I first heard it a couple of years ago and bought the last album, “Parador”, on the strength of it alone. Judging by the sample tracks on his website, the new one looks like it’s going to be exceptional too.  Wisely is severely underrated!
by Helene Bradley on 02/04 at 04:05 PM

This new Wisely album is good.
by Saul on 02/04 at 08:46 PM

I love this song. I love this video. I completely agree with all the previous comments. Definitely see him live if you can. He puts on a good show and he’s a nice guy too, always willing to chat with the fans.
by Janell on 02/04 at 10:50 PM

This song has been around awhile…remixed for the new album…and it’s really grown on me. The video is one of the best I’ve seen in the past year…an idea well-executed. My favorite Wisely video so far. Jenna must be pleased to be in this video, as she’d been very open about liking the song for some time. Meanwhile, I’ve been listening to this guy for twelve years, so the exposure that this new album is getting makes me smile. I hope it makes you smile, too.
by David Scott on 02/05 at 01:23 AM

Great song, great video. Nice to see Wisely getting some of the recognition he’s long had coming as one of my favorite songwriters and performers.
by Declan Z on 02/05 at 11:03 AM

Wisely is the best-kept secret on the pop-rock scene.  He’s ridiculously talented.
by Simon on 02/05 at 12:39 PM

His music is great and he always willing to talk to his fans . I wish him the best and hope he gets his much deserved recognition. Have him over for a House Party
by Mark on 02/05 at 01:19 PM

Amazing, amazing, amazing. But that’s what you always get with a Wisely album.
by Lori on 02/05 at 02:18 PM

I’ve been a Wisely fan for years and think this is his best album yet.  Pop mastery without pretension.  Highly recommended.
by Leslie on 02/05 at 05:22 PM

This video is very well done, like everything Wisely. I first picked up on Willie back in the days of the Willie Wisely Trio, and I’ve been driving everyone I know crazy ever since spreading the good word about him. Do yourself a favor and BUY WISELY!
by Cary B on 02/05 at 06:03 PM

amazing song! cool video!
by james combs on 02/05 at 07:14 PM

Wisely is an amazingly talented songwriter and performer.  People hear him and immediately ask, “Who is that?” Definitely worth your time and money!
by Cassie on 02/05 at 10:34 PM

Awesome Album! Well written and played. My kids and I enjoy listening to the music every chance we can get.
by Nikki on 02/06 at 12:15 AM

This is such a great song.  Willie Wisely is a brilliant writer and musician.  I’ve thought so for years.
by Peter Lancellotti on 02/06 at 12:23 PM

Wisely is as much incredibly talented as he is a sweet man; he appreciates his fans much more than I had expected. I had a great time at a house party, it was fun and Wisely was incredibly entertaining! Love you, Willie!
by April Marroquin on 02/07 at 01:46 AM

Wisely delivers again, with an even better album than “Parador.” No small feat! Add to that a great vid featuring America’s Sweetheart and a killer live show. What’s not to like?
by Butch on 02/08 at 12:04 AM

This is one of my favorite songs ever! Willie’s music is phenomenal! He’s a fabulous musician, and a wonderful person. I highly recommend any of his music, but especially his newest album!
by Virginia V on 02/11 at 10:57 AM

I love this song and video!
by Valerie on 02/11 at 11:56 AM

I love this song and it should be on radio stations across the country! I had the pleasure to see Wisely play this month and he is not to be missed!
by LJ Webster on 02/14 at 01:45 PM

I first saw Wisely with his “Trio” around 1992.  Been hooked ever since.  This guy bleeds talent, both live and in the studio.  Music that’ll move you, in more ways than one.
by JustinB on 02/15 at 09:33 PM

Great, amazing song.  The video is also lovely and sad.  Willie’s awesome!
by Lauren on 02/18 at 04:16 PM

Wisely is pure genius.  Artists of this caliber come along once in a blue moon. (You saw me standing alone…).  I’ve been a friend and a fan of his since 1937!  Like a fine Brunello, he just keeps getting better and better! Awe inspiring!
by Mark Hershberger on 02/21 at 10:18 AM

Flippin’ rad!  Jenna’s HOT, Wisely’s Coool.  A match made in Nirvana.
by Sandman on 02/23 at 01:53 AM

With a pop/rock sound that is pristine, beautiful, and unpretentious, Wisely’s music should brighten gray winter days and fill the head with jubilant thoughts of spring’s promise. Just try to resist singing along to crack tunes like the blissed-out “California” or the soft-spoken rambler, “Through Any Window.” His smooth voice, smart lyrics, and uncompicated arrangements make the songs on his self-titled album shimmer like droplets of morning dew. “The new album WISELY is filled with gems that should be all over the radio: “Cracked World View”, “Through Any Window”, “California”, “Nothing But Wind”. He’s also a consummate showman who knows how to connect with an audience. And hey, how many other independent artists could get one of the biggest stars on TV – Jenna Fischer from “The Office” to appear in his music video simply because she loves his music?” –JAMES COMBS, PRODUCER, NEW GROUND, KCRW-FM

Willie Wisely has paid his dues. Hailing from the same 1980s Midwest scene that spawned the Replacements, Husker Du and the Violent Femmes, Wisely has had a career that’s been as storied as it’s been criminally neglected. He got his start as a promoter at the well-known Minneapolis institution First Avenue and the 7th Street Entry before releasing a string of albums with the Willie Wisely Trio and on his own. Although his British Invasion influences are obvious, he’s taken them a step further toward a distinctive power-pop sound recalling Big Star and Badfinger. After two solo albums, Wisely largely disappeared from the world of music for nearly a decade. In 2006, he resurfaced with the darkly gorgeous PARADOR. Released on Not Lame, Bruce Brodeen’s Fort Collins-based imprint, the record showcased Wisely’s new sound, which could be considered bleakly melancholic were it not for his perfect tonal inflections, which conjure the beauty of cloudy spring days.

Minneapolis native Willie Wisely has been a fixture on the power pop scene since the mid ninties and every release has been met with critical acclaim. This new self-titled album has an introspective tone and feel, as now a father Wisely looks at life with new eyes. Each song has a seriousness that soak through each of the melodies. “On My Way” opens with a smooth adult California-styled strumming nicely brought along by Wisely’s crisp vocals. The next track, “Cracked World View” is similar to an Elliot Smith pop tune without all the moping. But my favorite track here is “California” with amazing hooks and uplifting tone that has found a near-permanent home on the ole’ ipod. The track has energy and exuberance to spare. “Ella” is a good follow up, as a Paul Simon-like message to his wife on the joys of parenthood as he tells his wife “..the things that made us sad seem far away”. The feel good vibe continues with “Vanilla” (yes a song about the simple pleasures of ice cream) and this is a song that Ringo wishes he could record.”Through Any Window” is a joy of multi-tracked vocals and guitars, that remind you Paul McCartney has permeated the brain here. It impressed actress Jenna Fischer (The Office) so much she appears in the video. Every song is a light gem, and fans of Andrew Gold, Paul Simon or Sondre Lerche would love this album. I’m proud to list it as the best new release of 2008, so far.

Today’s song comes from my first new album of the new year. It is by a band/guy called Wisely, which is short for Willie Wisely, the Minneapolis native, who has been making music since 1989. Based on the bands that I listen to, that is an old-timer. First impressions? The album starts out strong, has a couple of weak songs in the 3-5 range, but picks it up again towards the end. Check out the opening track, On My Way. I think his voice sounds a lot like the lead singer of Barenaked Ladies in this song.

You may have seen him in such films as Austin Powers in Goldmember, or making a cameo in the first episode of HBO’s Six Feet Under L.A.’s Willie Wisely is no stranger to Hollywood, and his most recent relationship with the celebrity world is some heavy promotion from Jenna Fischer (Pam on NBC’s The Office). She’s apparently a huge fan and friend of the alt-pop band, and even stars in the video for their single, “Through Any Window.” Wisely will be at The Red and the Black with Tom McBride. $8, 9:30 p.m.

SO, WILLIAM WISELY, on a scale of one to 10, how much do The Beatles influence you?

“Oh, God — 11,” admits the L.A.-based pop-rocker, gigging at The Red & The Black on Monday.

“I discovered The Beatles when I was 15 and I can’t get over it. I feel so deeply in love with their music that I had to wonder, ‘Am I gay? This is so weird.’ It still weirds me out that I see a Beatles book or the postcard from Yoko Ono that I have framed on the wall and I just melt. I stayed with The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and all these really conservative influences.”

The singer-songwriter’s new CD is the relaxed, self-assured, sunny — and, yes, Beatlesque — “Wisely.” The standout track is, by far, “Through Any Window” (see fan Jenna Fischer from “The Office” in the song’s video below), but the album is nonetheless an appealing effort brimming with memorable melodies, tasteful instrumentation and lyrics wise to the many incarnations of love.

Wisely concedes, though, that “Through Any Window” is the record’s peak.

“When I wrote it, I knew something about it was resonating with the universe,” he says. “I wanted to write a song about how our visual sense and memory collide. I was very inspired by a Paul McCartney demo from the late ’60s called ‘Goodbye.’ I sat down and tried to figure out the song and thought, ‘No. Write your own.’ So, I tried to imagine what he’d play on guitar and came up with an extremely different song, but I used the purity of his moment to inspire the song and brought my idea about light and memory to it.

“Insinuated in the picking pattern I chose on the guitar is a whole rhythm section and harmony,” the lanky singer continues. “There’s a whole band in my right hand in that song.”
Despite his remarkable dexterity, Wisely doesn’t mind sharing the stage or a little help from his fans. His “hidden Web site” includes a link where “amateurs, dilatants and experts alike” can sign up to play a song with Wisely.
“That always brings some levity to the show,” he said. “I’m almost certain that we have a conga player lined up for D.C.”

Wisely discussed producing Andy Dick, songs about California, pop-rock and the meaning of “genius” with Express.

EXPRESS: Do you run a studio as a day job?

WISELY: I finished producing an Andy Dick record in August and I kinda swore off doing more production for people. I do own a studio — by and large the record “Wisely” was recorded there — and it’s not really open to the pubic anymore. There’s been no day job since I got signed to Oglio. We’ve been very busy putting me out on tours.

EXPRESS: What kind of relationship do you have with Andy Dick?

WISELY: He and I have become buddies. We were set up by a mutual friend to write together and then I started producing his record. You know, the thing that bugs me about producing in L.A. is that everyone comes to you and says, “I want to sound like the Foo Fighters,” or whatever. I’m over that. I’ve got my own style and it’s hard for me to sound like other people. So it was really fun taking on Andy, because I could be very irreverent in my production. But I really don’t want to talk about his record. I want to talk about my new record.

EXPRESS: You got it. I’ll start with the song “California.” Does the world need another song about California?

WISELY: I know. I know! I know. I just heard another one. It’s just the fact that picking up roots and moving here after feeling like I had done all I could in Minneapolis — bands can thrive in Minneapolis, but songwriters really thrive on the coasts — I just had to move here, but it was a joyous thing: The sky is wide open, everybody’s unforgivably ambitious here and the sky’s the limit. And that’s great, but, of course, with that you get the worst in people as well. I just needed to write a song about the contradictions of this heavenly place.

EXPRESS: What sub-genres of pop and rock does your record touch on?

WISELY: How would John Mayer answer that question? I’m genuinely curious. I look at him and it’s like, “Is that rock? Is that pop? Is that power-pop? Is that singer-songwriter? Is that balladeer?” I wish I could be treated like him and have my music accepted as widely lovable as his. I see him as the guy sitting on top of the singer-songwriter genre who doesn’t have to define himself. The artist is the brand. I want to be my own brand.
I can name artists that I hear when I listen to the record: Donovan, Bad Company, Fleetwood Mac, Wings, Leonard Cohen, Dylan, ABBA, Ron Sexsmith, Neil Young.

EXPRESS: Of all the musical forms in the world, why choose pop-rock?

WISELY: Because what I most enjoy about music is the juxtaposition of melody against harmony. You have harmonic structures — the guitar is a very simple instrument, and it’s a great basis for melody to fly over it. I’m greatly influenced by jazz, so I like to be ambitious with my chord progressions and pop-rock is suitable for that. And the melodies that were brought to us by the great pop-rock acts of the ’60s — there’s so much for the ears. There needs to be some sort of innovation in the way that melody hits the harmonic structure and I only finish a song when I’ve hit upon that.

EXPRESS: How old are you?

WISELY: Almost 43 and it’s so fun to brag about that and say, “I’m old! And I’m excited to be doing this when I’m 83.” There’s gonna be this catalog of music and being an independent artist will just feel more wonderful as the years go on. I spent the ’90s trying to get signed and waiting for people to swoop down and help me. About five years ago, I realized, “No. It’s about me and art and waiting for no one.”

EXPRESS: Your Web site calls you a genius. Do you think that’s true?

WISELY: My Web site calls me a genius!? Jeez, that’s terrible. Was that somebody else’s quote?

EXPRESS: No, it’s in the bio.

WISELY: Jesus Christ. I have to read that. The label put that up.
No, I do not. Ray Charles is a genius. Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Fela Kuti, Prince, Paul McCartney — but only with John Lennon pissing him off.
The word “genius” can’t be thrown around in our era. Radiohead is not genius — the fawning over that band drives me nuts. I think “genius” is floated around too easily and we can’t use the word anymore, because part of genius is being innovative and I don’t think there’s much left to do. Part of genius is having something within you, but you also have to have the temporal and social opportunity to advance culture and I don’t think that exists anymore. So the days of pop music genius are over. Now we’re craftsmen, story-tellers, communicators, cultural medicine men and women, but genius isn’t happening anymore.

EXPRESS: On that note, I’ll let you go.

WISELY: Yeah, I gotta go edit my Web site.

We had the good fortune to be able to go to Ellsworth on Friday night (January 11th) and catch Wisely at the Maine Grind performance space.

(Willie) Wisely played solo for most of the evening. He had a percussionist join in for a couple of songs (as you can tell from the photographic evidence above). His set was an entertaining mix of pop songs and stories in a loose, freewheeling, almost-stream-of-consciousness delivery, which was probably three parts Willie’s personality and one part lack of sleep. Willie gigged in Massachusetts the night before and drove here after the gig. He might’ve gotten a few hours of sleep before appearing live on three different area radio stations (early morning on KISS, lunchtime on WERU and late afternoon on WHSN – next time we’ll have to get him to squeeze in a visit to WMEB and really test his endurance!).

Willie performed songs from his two most recent albums (PARADOR from 2006 and the brand new Wisely) along with a few older tunes. The set included (among others) Erase Me, Ella, Cracked World View, California, Who Blew Out the Sun, Vagabond, and Through Any Window.

Willie is an engaging performer who knows his way around a hook and a lyric. I don’t think I’d ever consider Wisely’s songs to be retro, but if you’ve ever

been wowed by the pop or power-pop of The Beatles, The Raspberries, Ben Folds or Matthew Sweet, then you owe it to yourself to check out Wisely (and don’t forget the Willie Wisely Trio recordings while you’re at it)!

(I wish I’d thought to get a set list from him or take some notes. Maybe I should crib from Emily as I saw her with notepad in hand at the show. I didn’t really plan on writing too much about the gig, but figured the pictures ought to have some commentary)

As you can see from the following photos, the fun didn’t stop when Willie’s set was done. A group of local musicians took over (I didn’t catch their name, though things ended up being more like a jam session as several other musicians joined in for a song or two (including Willie on harp for a bit)).

While there’s obviously no shortage of artists willing to soak up a retro stance, most prefer to focus on the giddier aspects of those older idioms, placing the emphasis on upbeat melodies and a cache of hooks sufficient to supply a fishing trawler. Not that Wisely lacks his share of ebullient refrains, but his is a more thoughtful delivery that probes the subtler undercurrents of those ’60s sensibilities. On this, his fourth album billed to his own name (as opposed to the eponymous Willie Wisely Trio), Wisely takes a pensive approach that encourages a closer hearing the first time around, as well as many subsequent returns. It’s a cerebral sound that drapes the mellow and measured “It’s Gonna Be Beautiful,” “Unfamiliar” and “Cracked World View,” but the rich arrangements, wistful refrains and Wisely’s resonant vocals give the music a cool steadiness and assurance. Wisely manages to run the gamut when it comes to pure pop indulgence; “Nothing But Wind” meanders along on a tangled, spiraling trajectory while songs like “Tokyo Arbor” and “Vanilla” are nothing if not absolutely effusive. The willowy “Ella” and “Through Any Window” pay obvious homage to Paul McCartney’s breezier outflow (Macca guitarist Rusty Anderson is listed among the contributors), but on the whole, Wisely’s too astute a songsmith to be confined to any specific influence. A flawless effort from start to end, Wisely affirms the fact that its namesake remains one of pop’s most shamefully overlooked artisans.

This is (Willie) Wisely’s fourth album, and it features lovely and melodic singer/songwriter pop. He has a famous friend in Jenna Fischer (Pam of “The Office”), who appears in his video for “Through Any Window”. It’s like if Badly Drawn Boy made an album full 70s AOR.

There is a place where Santa Barbara beaches meet Korean soap operas, where children play jazz piano and write good poetry, parents spill their guts to strangers at least once a day and the strange becomes strangely familiar. That place is the world of Wisely– the world that’s described in the mono-monikered solo artist’s new self-titled album, which is a celebration of love and life through easily appealing power-pop ballads.

True, most of the lyrics are incomprehensible– though you’ll understand what is being said, figuring out what it means is a lot harder. For example, in “Nothing But Wind” he sings, “I’d like, no I’d love to be a forest tonight/Ageless, erotic, a good place to die/Bending no fences to guard my frontier/Pissing on moss marks the end of the year.” He hasn’t bothered to translate his primal urges into something entirely understandable. But, even so, the listener can connect the dots and recognize those primal urges and, therefore, the album is a welcome reminder of the universality of human experience.

On a different level, a pure pop hum runs throughout. Wisely is a genius with instrumentation, so much so that his songs can feel predictable, but in the most natural way. An almost jazzy breakdown in “California” comes just when you need it, while the delicate and subdued acoustic strumming in “Through Any Window” gives the Shins’ “New Slang” a run for its money as a song that sounds best as the sun goes down on the last night of summer.

On January 8th, Willie Wisely released his self-titled new disc WISELY on the Oglio record label. He’s now out on a tour that will take him to both coasts of the U.S. in support of the album before returning to his home in California in February. On Saturday, January 5th Wisely played a tour and album kick off concert in his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota at The Bryant Lake Bowl. HowWasTheShow was on hand and has a review of the show on the main site. The day after that concert, HowWasTheShow founder David de Young joined Willie in his mother’s basement in St. Louis Park as the singer/songrwriter talked about his new album, the tour and played a few songs from the new record. This podcast includes live performances of “Through Any Window,” “California” and “Cracked World View.”

According to the liner notes on his sixth album, Willie Wisely and his significant other welcomed a son into the world during the making of this album — simply called WISELY — but if you were imagining that the joys of fatherhood might make Willie sound a bit more upbeat, rest assured that (for good or ill) nothing of the sort has happened. Wisely is another set of beautifully crafted pop with a vague sense of cloudiness and dread, as if Emitt Rhodes and Ron Sexsmith had decided to collaborate, and Wisely’s skills as a songwriter and a producer are as keen as ever. “California” lives up to its title, as sunny and smooth as you’d please, but for all the surf and sand Wisely finds something ominous in the land Brian Wilson built, repeatedly asking “How come no one warns you….” The simple domestic scene of “Though Any Window” turns out to be a portrait of a relationship that’s damaged beyond repair. And “Vanilla” is a tale of romantic disappointment built around the delicious metaphor of melting ice cream, with music that matches its tasty smoothness. But if Wisely is a cynic when it comes to matters of the heart, he’s not without compassion or a sense of understanding, and his songs have melodies that mingle sorrow with a palpable joy. (And Wisely manages to find a happy ending in the closing track, “I’ll Be Singing.”) Wisely has also enlisted some superb musicians to help him put these songs on tape (with Wisely handling the bulk of the recording), and the final product is 21st century smart pop that speaks to the soul as well as the ears, ranking with this underrated artist’s best work.

While there’s obviously no shortage of artists willing to soak up a retro stance, most prefer to focus on the giddier aspects of those older idioms, placing the emphasis on upbeat melodies and a cache of hooks sufficient to supply a fishing trawler. Not that Wisely lacks his share of ebullient refrains, but his is a more thoughtful delivery that probes the subtler undercurrents of those ’60s sensibilities. On this, his fourth album billed to his own name (as opposed to the eponymous Willie Wisely Trio), Wisely takes a pensive approach that encourages a closer hearing the first time around, as well as many subsequent returns. It’s a cerebral sound that drapes the mellow and measured “It’s Gonna Be Beautiful,” “Unfamiliar” and “Cracked World View,” but the rich arrangements, wistful refrains and Wisely’s resonant vocals give the music a cool steadiness and assurance. Wisely manages to run the gamut when it comes to pure pop indulgence; “Nothing But Wind” meanders along on a tangled, spiraling trajectory while songs like “Tokyo Arbor” and “Vanilla” are nothing if not absolutely effusive. The willowy “Ella” and “Through Any Window” pay obvious homage to Paul McCartney’s breezier outflow (Macca guitarist Rusty Anderson is listed among the contributors), but on the whole, Wisely’s too astute a songsmith to be confined to any specific influence. A flawless effort from start to end, Wisely affirms the fact that its namesake remains one of pop’s most shamefully overlooked artisans.

Willie Wisely, an erstwhile Minnesotan who now makes his home in Los Angeles, performs under just his last name these days, and his brand new record is also called just that, WISELY. The new disc which comes out on the Oglio label January 8th is quite possibly his best and most consistent record to date. It’s as if he mined the pop sensibility already present in his 1996 and 1997 gems SHE and TURBOSHERBET, and not only trimmed the fat, but also cranked everything up a notch in wisdom and craftsmanship. (Wisely had previously released an album that combined the best of his first two albums with a couple additional songs into a single release called GO!) As an album, WISELY seems a more honest and cohesive finished product even than 2005’s excellent PARADOR. You’ll find yourself wanting to play WISELY over and over again to get the nuances, and there are a lot there than you may hear at first listen.

Wisely’s 2008 tour kicked off with a show at the Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis Saturday. It was an informal and intimate affair that consisted of Wisely solo and as well as him teaming up with guest musicians Peter Anderson on drums (with whom Wisely has played off and on going back all the way to Willie Wisely Trio days), guitarist Justin McGuinn and pianist Tommy Barbarella. Barberalla is featured prominently on new the disc, most notably, perhaps, playing the gorgeous piano part on the track “California.”

Wearing a sharp white turtleneck and sporty red tennis shoes, Wisely acknowledged he’d come down with a bit of a cold and hoped it wouldn’t affect his performance (I don’t think it did), before opening up with the reflective “Erase Me,” from PARADOR. He then dug further back into his catalog for “Loander My Guitar” from his first album, commenting that the nostalgia of such oldies is often lost on some of his newer fans and when on the road.

“Only Losing Me” was the first of the tracks from his new disc Wisely would pull out tonight. In fact, though tonight’s set showcased many brand new songs, it was still a thoughtful overview of his whole career. Despite there being what looked like a set-list on stage, Wisely seemed to be taking an organic approach this night as far as which songs to play, perhaps evidenced further by the fact that the backing musicians were often called out (literally) from behind the curtain to join in. It was in just such a way that guitarist Justin McGuinn appeared for “Who Blew Out The Sun” from PARADOR.

Peter Anderson soon joined in on drums for the lovely ballad “Ella,” a song Wisely wrote for his young daughter. “Love Is Wrong” was done as a duet with McGuinn, and Wisely performed an uncannily perfect Bruce Springsteen imitation from the “Dancing In the Dark” video of the Boss extending his hand to grab that cute woman from the front row. (Those who got it found it hilarious, but I’m sure that went totally over the heads of anyone who didn’t. I’d never really thought of it before, but that was kind of a gargantuan pop culture moment, was it not?) Next up the title song from PARADOR included a sing-along – as it frequently does at Wisely’s shows – on the “oh no” part at the end.

Tommy Barbarella joined on piano for “California,” a song so ready-made for TV someone should make up a show just so this can be its theme song. Had it existed at the time, it could easily have replaced the Phantom Planet song that introduced “The OC” when it was on the air. Peter Anderson returned for the lead-off track of the new disc “On My Way,” a song that reminds me structurally of Lloyd Cole’s work, Cole being one of my favorite songwriters. It’s a journey song, as much about beginnings as it is about leaving things behind, and a perfect way to start out the album.  For this song, Wisely switched to his Gibson, and we had an almost full band electric number while still retaining the pared down feel of the entire show.

More songs and stories followed, including the infectious “Vanilla” and the beautiful “Through Any Window” from the new disc. (The video for the latter song features Jenna Fischer and has helped draw attention to the song and tens of thousands of new fans to his music, according to Wisely. It helps that the song is a crack job of songwriting to start with). Other “oldies” later in the set included “She Said Yeah,” in which Wisely surprised even himself hitting the high notes despite his scratchy throat. A request for “Please Don’t Talk About Me” morphed into a live mash-up with Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir,” which was as good as it was entertaining, with Wisely mimicking (again downright uncannily) Robert Plant’s gyrations while continuing the lyrics of his own song as Peter Anderson channeled John Bonham on drums.

Wrapping up the show, Wisely proved he’s as much of a family man these days as a showman by dedicating his last song “Flowers For The Lady” to his mother-in-law, who was in the audience. But not to be let go so quickly, another fan called “time out” during the set’s applause  and veritably demanded “Vagabond” (one of my personal Willie favorites) as an encore, to which Wisely graciously obliged despite being almost two hours into the set without a single break.

The show was a real treat for hometown fans, and if the fans on the road get anything like this show they are sure to come away feeling fulfilled and humming some great songs on their way out the door.

Be sure to check out the HowWasTheShow artist podcast featuring Willie Wisely.
Set list
1 “Erase Me” (Parador)
2 “Loander My Guitar” (She)
3 “Only Losing Me” (Wisely)
4 “Who Blew Out The Sun” (Parador)
5 “Things We Said Today” (Beatles cover)
6 “Ella” (Wisely)
7 “Love Is Wrong” (She)
8 “Parador” (Parador)
9 “California” (Wisely)
10 “On My Way” (Wisely)
11 ?? (Not sure)
12 “Christine” (Raincan)
13 “Vanilla” (Wisely)… playing songs the guys don’t know
14 “She Said Yeah” (Turbosherbet)
15 “Can’t Love You Enough” (Parlez-Vous Francais?)
16 “Through Any Window” (Wisely)
17 “No Surprise?” (Not sure)
18 “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone / Kashmir” (She)
19 “Cracked World View” (Wisely)
20 “Flowers for the Lady” (Turbosherbet)
Encore
1 “Vagabond” (She)

(Oglio/Ella Records) Just when I was beginning to think that melodic American pop had finally been crushed to death by monotony (a little more Maroon 5, anyone?), the blogosphere started tossing around a catchy name– one I’d never heard before. Minnesota native Willie Wisely began making music and touring in 1989 with his trio, which released two full-length albums before disbanding in 1995.

A stint in a mod pop band, a film-score contribution (Troma Entertainment’s Tromeo and Juliet), and a few solo albums later, a more world-traveled Wisely has dropped his full name (fellow Minnesota native Prince will be so proud) while continuing to build his pop-music cred. Wisely’s newest release overflows with breezy acoustic intros and melancholy lyrics, but his luscious instrumental arrangements and catchy choruses earn him distinction from the dim and dull singer-songwriter camp he recently escaped. Comparisons to Paul McCartney are fitting, especially with numbers like the higher- octave “Cracked World View” and the Wurlitzer piano-tinged opener, “On My Way.” Perhaps because Wisely doesn’t have a platinum back catalog staring him in the face every morning he’s still able to write outstanding melodies, harmonies, and lyrics that McCartney will only dream of concocting in what is left of his career. Standout tracks on Wisely include “Through Any Window,” “Ella,” and the Bad Company-esque “It’s Gonna Be Beautiful.”

The music on Willie Wisely’s sixth album proper, Wisely, feels Californian through and through. It’s smooth and breezy adult pop of the first order (think Dan Wilson), the perfect accompaniment for lazy days at the beach and sipping cocktails while taking in a Laurel Canyon sunset, there’s even a toast to life on the left coast — entitled “California” of course. So it came as some surprise to me that even though Wisely’s had no trouble finding steady musical employment since moving to L.A. from Minneapolis back in 2000, he’s done everything from advertising work with Spike Lee to scoring the Scooby Doo films from a few years back, he still considers Minnesota home.

“I definitely still feel like a Minneapolis guy,” claims Wisely from the California home he shares with his wife and two children. “I grew up there and spent a long time making music there. The musical ties I made in Minneapolis and the things I learned there are still the formative experiences that have led to everything I’m doing now. In L.A. it’s harder to hook up with people; everyone is so busy working on their own thing.”

Be that as it may, Wisely managed to hook up with no shortage of A-list players for his album, including members of Paul McCartney and Dwight Yoakam’s touring bands and Swedish outfit The Soundtrack of Our Lives. The session men helped Wisely craft a lush record, with dollops of smooth keyboards and jazzy lead guitar fills buoying Wisely’s tuneful emotive tenor, providing spot on support whether churning out sparkling mid-tempo pop (album opener “On My Way”) or afoot in more languid melancholy terrain (the sublime “Unfamiliar” co-written with Minneapolis musician Brian Tighe of the Owls). Oddly enough, however, Wisely’s finest moment actually comes in its sparest musical expression, the acoustic ballad “Through Any Window,” an initially slight seeming song whose Beatles-level staying power gradually becomes apparent on multiple listens.

At this point no stranger to the world of celebrity, Wisely’s found a new high profile champion in the form of Jenna Fischer (better known as Pam on NBC’s hit show, The Office). Fischer’s apparently such a die-hard Wisely friend and fan that she volunteered her services to star in the music video for “Through Any Window.” It’s safe to say not too many Minnesota natives have Pam in their rolodex, but Wisely comes across as anything but starry-eyed about his Hollywood connections. “In L.A. you’re surrounded by ambitious people and you don’t have to apologize for it,” states Wisely, “in Minnesota it’s almost like people feel they have to apologize for being ambitious. People still give me attitude and talk shit about me behind my back about moving out here. I don’t worry about, I’m too busy building new songs and moving forward to care.”

Busy would be an understatement, in addition to the just-released Wisely, there are two other records nearly in the can, one of which was recorded in Minneapolis at Ed Ackerson’s Flower Studios with the original members of the Willie Wisely Trio (bassist James Voss, drummer Peter Anderson). Throw fatherhood into the mix and you’ve got a plenty full plate. And although many before him have had problems reconciling being a family man with life as a rock ‘n’ roller Wisely appears to suffer from no such identity crisis, going so far as to name his record label after his daughter, Ella, and penning a tasteful slice of Americana on the new album in her honor.

“Since having kids I think my writing has more clarity and more universality at the same time,” says Wisely. “The youngest person in the family is still me, I still kind of have the child role in our family. The dictum in my family is, ‘Willie follows his dreams,’ that’s not to say I’m a bad father, I definitely help around the house. I feel lucky that my metabolism makes it so I only need five hours of sleep a night. I do wonder how people who like to sleep pull it off. Balancing a family with a music career, particularly where you’re really trying to make it happen, it isn’t easy. But when the kids go to bed I can get down to the basement and work on music until two in the morning.”

Now that Wisely is being unveiled to the world it means plenty of touring in support, with a six week jaunt already planned that includes plenty of informal and non-traditional concert venues. “The new record was such a personal statement for me that it made more sense to tour this way,” explains Wisely. “I wind up playing in art galleries and photo studios, in people’s living rooms, at bed and breakfasts. It sounds folky but that’s not what it is, they’re deep connects between me and the fans, particularly since touring with a band isn’t something I feel like doing right now. Not every recording artist’s personality is going to be built for those situations. Sometimes you’re performing to 14 year olds and 80 year olds and they’re both in the front row. It doesn’t work for people that are sociopaths or fear their audience. Luckily I don’t have that problem.”

Songwriters like Willie Wisely make records and play shows knowing it’s a crapshoot whether their songs are heard, and by whom. So for 16 years, Wisely has been crafting smart, stunning pop tunes for the indiest of labels, enjoying that bittersweet cult following, where you take sustenance from kind words and odd jobs—like scoring films. Wisely met Jenna Fischer (The Office, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story) when soundtracking her (sadly estranged) husband James Gunn’s Tromeo and Juliet and later, her own mockumentary Lollilove. Now an effusive member of the cult of Wisely, Fischer agreed to star in the video for “Through Any Window,” a starkly beautiful, Beatles-meet-Drake suckerpunch to the gut found on his eponymous sixth album.

Jenna Fischer: What made you think of me?

Wisely: I knew it was gonna be a special song and I wanted [the video] to be smart and sad and maybe a little funny or clever. Jenna, that’s you!

JF: Yay! What was your inspiration?

W: I wanted to write about lights and how they affect memory, so there are some metaphysical questions embedded in there, but in the bridge it talks about school buses and stuff, and that was the result of my wife and I talking about bringing kids into this sad, crazy world called Los Angeles.

JF: It has a meditative quality, where you can listen to the song [repeatedly] and it continues to inspire a number of different thoughts. And I’m not a person who normally listens to [lyrics]. I’m more like, “Is it peppy enough to walk down to the corner to get coffee?” But this song is one of those “lay on the bed and just let it seep in” kinds of songs. I remember sitting around and talking about what are we going to communicate in this video. We had a bunch of ideas but nothing ever quite seemed right.

W: We owe such a great debt to [director] John Cabrera and [writer] Lee Kirk. These guys wrought something that was so knotty and [had] just snakes eating snakes’ worth of meaning. Every time I watch the video, I’m just amazed at every little detail and nuance.

JF: Lee came up with two ideas that were particularly important. One was [do it all] in one shot, [which] gave it a certain energy… I’d never done anything that’s just one shot. It was almost dance-like, and choreographed. Sometimes we’d have to exit in one room but enter in another room, and crawl underneath the table or scoot next to the wall so our shadow didn’t show on the other person. Now, there’s certain sections of the song where in my head, I’m like “Left, right, stop, pause. Left, right, duck, table, plant.” [laughs] And in that pause where I say, “Can I have this?” I’m referencing the plant. I was listening to the song the other day, and I found myself doing that!

W: [laughs]

JF: Lee came up with the idea to have these Polaroids develop in front of us. I love that idea because it’s very symbolic of the song because… it’s not a super-clear snapshot; it develops over time.

W: Yeah, the Polaroids were a brilliant stroke ’cause they [enabled] that surprise ending. People always tell me they sort of get a little verklempt right at that moment. I have a question. You are so busy: how could you find 19 hours—

JF: It took 19 hours? It was so long! I have actually a group photo on my wall. We all look really tired. And I was sick—I remember taking a nap. I have a very funny photo of you sticking your head in and giving a big smile over my sleeping, lifeless, sick body.

W: Your nose was a little faucet.

JF: Luckily [not] until we were doing the Polaroid part. But you make time for the things that are important to you, and it’s not every day that a person gets to star in the music video of their favorite song. And I think we did it on a Sunday, during a holiday week[end]. Of course, now I have all the time in the world because of the writers’ strike.

Wisely — a k a singer-songwriter Willie Wisely — hadn’t put out an album for 10 years before resurfacing with PARADOR in 2006. It hasn’t taken him nearly that long to release a follow-up, and this self-titled full-length (out Jan. 8 on indie Ella Records) is energetic, lovely and thoughtful at different points on these dozen songs. “On My Way” opens the album with an infectious 4 minutes of hooky, guitar-soaked pop. There’s a sense of yearning, but you want to hum along. By comparison, the rest of Wisely is a tad more subdued, but it’s not mopey. “Cracked World View” opens with a cheery, lopping keyboard riff that splashes some sunshine on Wisely’s wistful vocals: “Every day I grow a little bit farther from you,” he sings in an amiable tenor. “And love grows smaller in the din and the holler of your cracked world view.” With the exception of the Elliott Smith echo in the solitary “Through Any Window,” Wisely injects songs such as “Tokyo Arbor” and “Vanilla” with enough edge to make this album more than articulate. It also rocks some, too.

Thanks to my slight obcession with the tv show The Office, I found this video because of the fact that Jenna Fischer (Pam Beesley) is in it. However, immediately after watching it, I fell in love with both the song and the video. I’m a huge fan and consumer of Polaroid film so to see something like this being done with it was really wonderful to me. So, here you go, enjoy.

Ok, I may as well bookend a hat-trick of hushed wonders with (actor, soundtrack composer) Willie Wisely’s ‘Through Any Window’. This one comes from his most recent album PARADOR and displays intricate chords manoeuvres as well as an eye for close harmonies. Initially the tune presents a whirlwind of lo-fi pleasantries, which slowly erode as the song proceeds. Not that the experience ever becomes bland but it seems a shame that the unplugged fireworks at the start could not have been built upon. As it is Wisely proves a pleasant antidote to the blunt troubadours who fill stadiums with their forgettable diary entries put to sub-standard musical backdrops.

We hosted a house concert last Saturday featuring Willie Wisely, who’s just going by Wisely now. About 30 people came out, many of them new fans who had found him thanks to the advocacy of actress Jenna Fishcer (Pam Beasley from NBC’s “The Office”), a perfect number for our not-too-large living room.

It was a revelatory performance, reminding me of why I completely flipped for Willie when I first heard him in 1990. He’s an incredibly polished songwriter, but a wonderfully loosey-goosey performer with a great, innate sense of swing and improvisation. Sometimes the two sides seem to be at war — polish has won out over vibe on his last few recordings, and the bands he’s played with over the last 10 years have been stocked with too many noodledick-y LA session types who treat their fretboards like typewriters.

Solo, Willie was completely unfettered. He played moldy oldies like “Six Buckets of Kerosene,” as well as beautiful newer songs.

Click on the links to see him perform “Through Any Window” and “Drink Up.”

We walked up to the Vaudeville Mews entrance only to be stopped by a couple well-meaning fans encouraging us to see a great artist there that night. Wisely. Yeah, we know. So we walk in, pay the $5 cover, order a beer, and settle in with all 3 other people. Yep, roughly 5 people in Des Moines came out to see Wisely at an early Friday night show. Sure, I can come up with a lot of excuses (Oktoberfest, early show, Des Moines radio sucks, what do you expect from the town that gave the world Slipknot, etc.), but I was disappointed. That feeling wouldn’t last long.

Seconds later, we were informed the show was pushed back to 9:45. Refund, right? Yeah, not so much. Nonetheless, the bartender encouraged Willie to play a few tunes for us – and shockingly, he did. Class act. We got to sit back and enjoy 5 or 6 great Wisely tunes (I forgot – I was a bit excited). It was as personal a concert I have ever and will likely ever experience, and it was unforgettable. It was a truly interactive experience as Willie asked for requests. He was about to finish with my new favorite tune Through Any Window before Mrs. 2poppy made some wiseass remark about my geek-crush on Jenna Fischer. Willie had lost the desire to do the tune. Dammit.

We come back a few hours later to see the rescheduled show. Yep, another $5. Really, Mews, really? But it’s only $5 and it is Wisely, so be it. The crowd has engorged to about a dozen or so, not counting the night’s next band moving in all their equipment right in front of the stage. We were rewarded with about an hour of excellent Wisely tunes until the Mews basically forced him offstage to make way for that other band. He sounds as good live as you’d expect. And we got Through Any Window.

Thanks, Willie. I’ve seen so many concerts that I’ve lost count (not that I ever kept count). Yours was truly a unique experience and one that renewed my passion for music in ways I never expected. Plus Mrs. 2poppy now has a crush – and keep in mind she picks her music crushes quite carefully.

The third album from Wisely…self-titled because (in his own words) “I feel like this is the first record I should have ever made.” Actually, this does sound very much like a debut album. These soft, introspective tunes are super melodic and genuine. Subdued and reflective, these tracks sound slick and polished…without ever sounding overproduced and artificial. Wisely worked with some heavyweights on this one…Petur Smith(Jason Falkner), Rusty Anderson(McCartney), Joshua Grange(Dwight Yoakam), Rick Boston(Low Pop Suicide), Kalle Gustafsson Jerneholm(Soundtrack of Our Lives), and Ludwig Boss(Ray Wonder) all contributed to the recording of these tunes. Considering the number of musicians involved and the amount of work that went into recording this album…it is surprising how open and spacious these songs sound. Instead of too many overdubs and cluttered orchestration, Wisely and his friends exercised a great deal of restraint…in the end, allowing the songs themselves to take center stage. And songs are the real draw here…as these intricate, personal tunes will evoke definite feelings and moods in the mind of the listener. Superb feelgood soft pop tracks include “On My Way,” “Tokyo Arbor,” “Nothing But Wind,” “Ella,” and “I’ll Be Singing.” Great singer/songwriter material…highly recommended… (Rating: 5++)

Here’s some cheerier Jenna Fischer news than this headline that made the rounds this week: Fischer appears in a new music video by the indie artist Wisely, which you can watch on YouTube. She has mentioned the band on MySpace before, and, in this behind-the-scenes video, the two artists say that’s how the project came about. Wisely’s self-titled album arrives in stores Jan. 4.

After “The Office” star Jenna Fischer announced she was a huge fan of Wisely’s music, Willy Wisely asked her to star in the video for “Through Any Window.” Thankfully, she agreed, and we now have this gorgeous video to start off our week.

When the ever cool actress Jenna Fischer (aka Pam Beesley from The Office) fawns over a band, she’s pretty whole hearted about it. So much so that when California singer songwriter, Willie Wisely asked her to be in his latest video, she agreed instantly (even though 80% of it is through a bunch of polaroids which she happily posed for). Told you she was cool! Wisely’s album WISELY is available through iTunes.

Hello from the desk of Pam Beesly. We are back at work on Season Four! Things are going very well. The scripts are hilarious…we are laughing a lot. The other day we got Steve to break in the middle of a scene – and Steve NEVER breaks! Let’s see…a lot of you have been asking about the Season 3 DVD. It comes out in two weeks on September 4th. And then Season 4 starts on Thursday September 27th with a special hour long episode.

We’ve been working a lot of overtime to produce hour long episodes to kick off the season. There will be 4 of them! Our usual 12 hour days have expanded to 14 or 15 hour days. Crazy! Our crew is working like mad. But the scripts are amazing and SO funny. We just read a scene from the third episode that made my heart skip a beat. SO GOOD!

In other news… the music video I did with Willie Wisely is online! If you are a faithful reader of this blog you know how much I love this guy’s music. Back in January we shot a music video for my favorite song – Through Any Window. I was THRILLED when he asked me to participate and even more excited when I heard the concept for the video. The entire thing is only ONE shot. No cuts. Screenwriter, Lee Kirk (“Sad Happy Sucker” in my Top Friends)




wrote the concept and story for the video. John Cabrera (you might recognize him from his role on Gilmore Girls) directed. These two are brilliant. They’ve worked together before. A short film called “The Man Who Invented the Moon” starring my brother-in-law Sean Gunn. I’ve been wanting to work with both of them for a long time.

We shot the video over 2 days. The first day was all rehearsal. John made an animated version of the song with a little cartoon me and cartoon Willie. Here we are studying the video. That’s Willie on the left and John in the blue. Our Director of Photography, Scooter, is on the floor.

Next was blocking. We spent about 3 hours trying to hit all of our marks on time with the song. I loved working this way. It made the project very exciting. I got my start in theater and I was in a ballet company when I was little so this was a lot of fun for me.

The next day we arrived early and started shooting the Polaroids. This took longer than expected. Lots of wardrobe changes and set ups. But it was fun. They are real Polaroid photos. As you can see in John’s hands below.

We started shooting the actual music video around noon. We messed up a ton in the beginning. Willie and I ran into each other in the stairwell and missed an entrance. A lot of times you could see our shadows as we tried to sneak past the camera as it panned. And, Willie had a hard time putting the photos down on the table straight. After over a dozen tries, we broke for lunch. Here I am crashing at lunch. I was a little sick that day too. But it helped me keep the sniffly sad look on my face.

Things picked up after lunch. Every time we got to the end of the song without a mistake we would get SO excited. We knew we were doing well if we could get past the part with the guitar. It was usually smooth sailing after that. But our director is a wicked perfectionist. If there was one little thing off, he’d make us do it again. I’m not exactly sure but I think we taped over 20 takes. Here we are near the end of the day watching what we thought was our best take. Look how serious we all are!

Oh… after you watch the video, if you are wondering about the face behind the hands on the table…that’s our writer/hand model Lee Kirk. Here I am expressing my awe. He had never done hand acting before. Nice huh?

In the end…I LOVE this video. And, I’m tickled to have been a part of it. It was a very creative experience. I love Willie’s music and our crew could not have been nicer. Here is the whole gang at the end of a very long day. I hope you like it! Let me know what you think. I do read all my blog comments. (But, I only read them in order. I don’t read the first page over and over again. So if you comment another comment, I’ll probably miss it.)

Enjoy! (And, thanks to Tori for teaching me how to put the video into this blog! See…I told you I read my blog comments!)

A Note from our Director…So, to clarify: The video was indeed all done in one take. In fact, it was take 37 that we ended up using. However, the picture you see above is of us watching take 35. We got pretty close with it, but if you notice in the shot, my mouth is moving. And it was not welcomed news for this tired crew, I’m afraid. Luckily, though, we got it two takes later.

Willie Wisely’s first album in eight years suggests that he stayed sharp in the interim. Touchstones for classy pop tunes such as “This is Everything” include ’70s troubadours Al Stewart circa “Year of the Cat” and Gerry Rafferty circa “Baker Street.” “Stayin’ Home Again” woos the domesticated ladies, as Wisely summarizes why he’d rather keep his lover company indoors than hit the town. The other shoe drops during “Erase Me,” which begins as Wisely confesses, “Don’t drop by, I’ll be wasted, and I’ll get mean/You don’t want to see that again.” Probyn Gregory (Wondermints, Brian Wilson) provides touching French horn counterpoint to a bittersweet string arrangement. “Too Quick to Love” is a steely-eyed kiss-off: “Don’t try and make things better,” Wisely suggests, adding, “Though you’re sweet to try.” Love hurts.

“[I love this] little-known artist named Willie Wisely. He actually just asked me to star in his music video! I’m kind of flipping out! I’d already been listening to his music, and there was this one song in particular called “Through Any Window” that I have been flipping out over. And I put it up on my MySpace page as my profile song and it got all these downloads off iTunes and he found out and so he asked me to be in his music video. That’s the kind of stuff that happens when you’re a celebrity that doesn’t happen in real life.”

You could do a hell of a lot worse than landing Playmate of the Year Kara Monaco to play your wife. In Willie Wisely’s video for “Stayin’ Home Again,” Kara hunts for dinner, fights a ninja and uses telekinesis, all for the benefit of Wisely’s stay-at-home slacker. Watch the video here.

I met the artist known as Wisely (Willie Wisely, that is) at the Triple A NON-COMMvention in May, and I knew I had his CD somewhere in my office. I’m glad I found it (like I said, heavy construction… it’s even more of a mess than ususal in here!), because Parador is a perfect album of intelligent, captivating pop music.

Veteran singer-songwriter Willie Wisely has, for a long time been mentioned for his emotionally powerful and deeply memorable music. The new disc, PARADOR, marks Wisely’s first solo effort in eight years. Choosing the acoustic guitar as his weapon of choice Wisely’s sincere melodies and lyrical artistry makes for some memorable music. PARADOR leads off with the track, “This Is Everything.” Wisely performs some classic pop which loudly awakes during the choruses and includes quiet electronics. Two tracks later, “Stayin’ Home Again” turns PARADOR into an up-beat radio-friendly album. Giving PARADOR the energy and life it needs to bring a happy mood to everyone. Throughout Wisely’s new CD, the thought of “this kind of sounds like Dashboard Confessional” is often present. Surely this is a solo album, but Wisely gets a lot of help from friends contributing with drums, bass, even the cello and violin, all assisting to make PARADOR sound more full and layered then 11 tracks of acoustic guitar. Willie Wisely’s sincere music makes for a great album.

When referring to an artist as being “pop,” you’re on a slippery slope, and it’s one that goes something like this:

“Pop” is short for popular, and while everyone wants to be popular, the problem is that once you are popular, you’re right around the corner from being mainstream… and nobody wants to be mainstream, because then, all of a sudden, everything you do has to be more successful than what’s preceded it, and the first time it isn’t, bam, you’re labeled a has-been, your label stops promoting your album, your contract isn’t renewed, and suddenly you’re telling interviewers that you’re “going indie” for your next release, even though the reality is that you didnÕt actually have any choice in the matter, and you’re steadfastly avoiding mention that you’ve had to go back to your job at the bookstore because the music isn’t paying the bills anymore.

You think I’m overreacting? Man, I wish I was. And, okay, perhaps I am just a tad. But just in case, let’s call Willie Wisely — oh, right, sorry, he just goes by Wisely now — an adult alternative artist who knows his way around a hook. It’s just safer that way.

Wisely has been puttering around the fringes of the Minneapolis music scene since the ’80s, but it wasn’t until 1994 that he released his first solo album, PARLEZ-VOUS FRAN≠AIS?, on Pravda Records. From there, he bounced to Twin/Tone for 1996’s SHE, then to October for 1997’s TURBOSHERBET. It wasn’t until musician/producer Linus of Hollywood stepped in, sang Wisely’s praises, and put his money where his mouth was in 2003 by releasing a compilation of some of Wisely’s best work — GO! — on the Franklin Castle label.

Now, Wisely’s back with his first proper album in almost a decade, and, once more, Linus of Hollywood has come through, serving as producer for over 90% of PARADOR. Given that Linus and Wisely are probably equally talented when it comes to writing a catchy chorus, you can imagine that the combination has resulted in some of the catchiest tunes in recent memory. Helping to flesh them out are guest appearances from guitar god Paul Gilbert, former that dog frontwoman Anna Waronker, and Wondermints wunderkind Probyn Gregory on French horn. (The latter does particularly nice work on “Erase Me.”)

Wisely’s musical reference points used to be more obvious — Paul McCartney and Squeeze were always crucial touchstones — but, while they’re still there on occasion (Macca’s influence is definitely felt on “Through Any Window” — but, now, his sound is more stylistically expansive. Opener “This Is Everything” is sufficiently dramatic as to warrant its all-encompassing title, with a sweeping chorus. “Joke,” “Let Me Run Wild,” and “Stayin’ Home Again” are particularly propulsive numbers, but the tone of much of the album is decidedly melancholy. Wisely’s most significant achievement on PARADOR is that it manages to hint at sadness without dragging things down musically.

Fans of artists like Jon Brion and the Pernice Brothers should pay a visit to PARADOR. Just try to avoid the instinct to call it power pop; Wisely deserves better than that, and so does his album.

The start of Wisely’s PARADOR is something that has been heard countless times through college radio stations and individuals that are playing guitars in coffee shops. However, the infusion of “This Is Everything” with a certain electronic sound, almost in the vein of a The Sounds-like atmosphere to things, makes Wisely’s music on the disc something fundamentally different from the rest of the music out now. Each of the subsequent tracks on PARADOR allow Wisely to come out with something slightly different. “Too Quick To Love” moves Wisely into an Edwyn McCain type of sound, and while the style has been done before, it has never been done with such a rich instrumentation backing the primarily artist up.

The almost-falsetto achieved during “Stayin’ Home Again” plays the perfect light side to the deeper, world-weary vocals and scratchy guitars that are the common sound during the track. At some point during “Stayin’ Home Again”, Wisely throws in that wonderful bit of synthesizer. DonÕt get me wrong, this is not the dance-rock that captured the minds and hearts of youths a few years back with acts like The Rapture, but rather Wisely uses electronic sounds as a garnish to a guitar-driven brand of rock. Even when Wisely plays a slower brand of rock, as is the case with “Erase Me”, there is enough material present during the track to allow for individuals to hold on and never let go.

The insertion of drums and a bass during the second movement of the track really locks individuals in, and instead of being a slow ballad that rehashes the same theme over and over, it is a dynamic track that increases the range that Wisely is capable of. The use of a morose brand of brass during the track puts the icing on the cake, and is the best counterpoint to the much more loud and brash follow-up to the track, in “Altitudes”. Wisely is the type of individual that looks very predictable from the onset, but after listening to PARADOR a few times, one will learn that the one thing that Wisely is is not predictable. Here’s to hoping that Wisely can cut another batch of eir pleasant and pointed, but still ultimately friendly guitar-laden indie rock. Without anything really weak on PARADOR, it seems like Wisely has reached a plateau; it will only be a matter of time to see whether Wisely can continue along this high path of achievement.

Top Tracks: Stayin’ Home Again, Altitudes

A bit of a mysterious enigma, Willie Wisely is one of those rare artists that are truly unpredictable, even though the musical genre he subscribes to remains the same. A pop artist, he writes songs of happiness and despair surrounded by swirling melodies and tight harmonies; a predictable formula for most, but not for this artist. With PARADOR, Wisely has gotten over the need for certain effects and gimmicks that worked well for his early albums and replaced it, simply, with phenomenal songs… eleven of them to be exact. His growth as a songwriter over the last eight years since TURBOSHERBET was released is most evident in mature, emotional tracks like “Through Any Window” and “Too Quick To Love.” One might call these tracks deep, heartfelt McCartneyesque; if McCartney actually wrote from his soul, which Wisely seems to do effortlessly. The album is heavy on the mid-tempo ballads (a good thing), enabling the listener to deeply feel the lyrical angst in many of the tracks. As soon as you get comfortable with Wisely’s moderate-tempo story telling you are swept off your feet by the transitional “Stayin’ Home Again” which raises the tempo bar as well as the lyrical mood. “Altitudes” and “Let Me Run Wild” are pure Wisely sing-along chorus, power pop tracks of the first order! Throw in the album’s near pristine production quality and in PARADOR you have an exceptional study in pure pop brilliance.

Men.Style.com, the online home of GQ and Details magazines blasts: “Beats us how cult pop hero Willie Wisely convinced 2006 Playmate of the Year Kara Monaco to appear in the screwball video for his latest single, “Staying Home Again,” but props to him. (Andy Dick also makes an appearance, but that’s somehow less surprising.)
Watch it here“.

I’ve heard it said that bad news is always better received when given by a pretty messenger or placed in an attractive package. Willie Wisely must have heard the same thing, because his most recent record, PARADOR, is a collection of some of the most heartbreaking stories of lost loves and life’s defeats told through syrupy-sweet power-pop songs. These songs play like they were written by someone who got really into XTC, and then later discovered the Beatles, but only after hearing that they were a really big influence on XTC’s music.

In the more recent world of popular music, Wisely’s songs resemble those of a slightly older, wiser and more world-weary Fountains of Wayne. Wisely has moved far beyond the schoolboy infatuation with the high school sweetheart’s mother. He’s already had the marriage, the mortgage, the divorce and the drinking problem, and now he’s developed the sense of humor and perspective necessary to tell the stories.

It’s been a while since Wisely released 1997’s TURBOSHERBET, but he definitely hasn’t been slacking. He’s been living in Los Angeles where he’s had his hand in about every media outlet L.A. has to offer, including working as a music producer, scoring several films like “Tromeo and Juliet” (Andy Dick’s newest comedy) and two Scooby Doo flicks, and working as an actor in numerous films and television shows, including HBO’s “Six Feet Under.” After all that, however, Wisely is glad to return to making pop music.

“I’ve always really only wanted to be a recording artist first,” he said. “All that other stuff was just me testing my legs in Los Angeles and seeing what my heart wanted to do. It just seems like all those other projects, acting included, involved stifling your personality somehow. It just seems like when I write songs, there’s none of that. It’s pure expression.”

These days, Wisely’s main concern is writing complex songs about real emotions, and challenging the commonly perceived notions of what popular music can be and who is allowed to make it.

“It’s unfortunate that pop music is considered a young person’s art form,” Wisely said. “I wanted to make a record that was emotionally dense. I’ve made records that were very bright and colorful, that were full of splashy ideas, but I’d never made a record that had a lot of emotional gravity, and I set out to do that [with PARADOR]. And I’m not worried about the age thing. I think with the crumbling of the music industry as we know it, all this ageism is going to go away.”

With Wisely working diligently to make his music more emotionally dense, I asked him how much of this record was biographical. At first, he said most of the record was autobiographical, but that there are a few exceptions, notably the beautifully sad narrative “Too Quick to Love.” Then, after pausing in thought, Wisely changed his mind: “You know what?,” he said, “‘Too Quick to Love’ is totally autobiographical about me, too. I wanted to write a song called that because all my life – I remember I would freak girls out because I wanted to get so hyper-committed, and I’ve always been such a ‘husband,’ you know? And I’ve always been too quick to call it love and it would ruin it, it would ruin the fun.”

Wisely set a daunting goal for himself with PARADOR, and for the most part, he has succeeded brilliantly. The album possesses a distinct ability to tell you a true, heartbreaking story that maintains its emotional depth while simultaneously being so catchy that you’ll find yourself smiling and humming the tune days later. This didn’t come without a certain amount of hard work and perfectionism on Wisely’s part.

“A lot of stuff wound up on the editing room floor,” he said. “So much so that there’s a separate CD released called PARADOR ALTERNATE TAKES. It’s all the same songs, but completely different versions of every one of them. It’s all the rage now to have your fans mix or remix your record or whatever. Well, this is neither of those. It’s literally the same record twice. But two different ways.”

I noted the similarity to XTC’s Homespun and Homegrown records, which he said he wasn’t familiar with, but wasn’t surprised that they’d beaten him to the idea. I pointed out that it wasn’t so bad to have something in common with XTC, to which Wisely replied, “Amen, brother.”

Singer-songwriter Willie Wisely, who recently released new album “Parador,” is not a crack dealer, but he plays one on television.

The Minneapolis native and Los Angeles resident has spent the last few years either on a concert stage or in front of a camera. After all, when you live near Hollywood, you’d be shortchanging yourself not to give acting a shot. So Wisely has, and, well, he’s learned something about himself – or rather the reflection he gives off to casting directors.

“I always get booked as the crack dealers and drug addicts,” said Wisely, calling from Los Angeles. “I guess I’m doomed.”

While not necessarily doomed, Wisely enjoyed limited success as an actor (appearances includes “Six Feet Under“), which may have had an adverse effect on his acting career.

“I’m taking respite from that while I work this record,” Wisely said.

“One art form is challenging enough to live for, and there’s enough struggle in being an artist where I don’t need to struggle in acting and struggle in music. It’s too much.”

With his focus back on music, Wisely is touring PARADOR – his first solo project in more than eight years – with a Midwest swing that brings him to Youngstown on Wednesday at The Royal Oaks.

Not surprisingly, considering his background, PARADOR has a very cinematic approach that not only creates an alluring “bed of sound” but also a vibrancy where “so much is being evoked that it becomes visual at some point,” he said.

Popmeister Willie Wisely returns to his hometown this weekend for a show in support of his new album PARADOR (Ella/Not Lame Recordings). Wiselyfans recall a couple albums he recorded in the 90s for Steven Greenberg’s October Records label. This album features more of the Minneapolis native’s masterful tunesmithing. In recent years, Wisely has been playing and writing music, and acting from his Los Angeles home base. The music starts at 8pm Sunday May 21 at the Varsity Theater.

I’ve written here before that someday, there will be a great Nuggets-type box set chronicling the ’90s power pop scene. What a fertile time, with great bands like The Shazam, Love Nut, Ross, The Posies and (to some, but not me) Jellyfish, among others. Personally, I think that era is the golden age of power pop. And now that we are more than halfway through the aughts, I can be a wee bit nostalgic for an era that was hopping just about a decade ago.

Willie Wisely was part of that great era (I’m making it sound like it was a long time ago…) and has been quiet for a while. He is quiet no more, and this album is up to the gold standard that he and others set in the ’90s. Working with a sympathetic producer, the brilliant Linus Of Hollywood, Wisely makes a gem of a disc.

So what does Wisely sound like? He brings to mind Jason Falkner, but with a bit more adherence to rigid power pop standards – maybe Falkner with some Cliff Hillis mixed in (and these comparisons are made only because of a general similarity – kind of the Recommended If You Like type of comparison). He has a deceptively terrific voice. He tends to sing in his midrange. There is a real normal guy quality to his voice. Only when he gets into the higher end of his range is it obvious what a talented vocalist he really is.

The Wisely sound is displayed in its full glory on “Stayin’ Home Again”. The track begins with a strummed acoustic with the accent of a lead guitar. The song has a tried-and-true rock structure, with the melodic verse leading into a chorus that takes the melody higher, with an accompanying added energy. This fits the lyrics to a ‘T,’ as the song is about a guy who’s been looking for love. Now he’s finally found it, a woman worth staying home with for the night. Wisely sounds like someone who’s finally found the right woman, exuding a mix of weariness or uncertainty, spun into joy (colored by slight disbelief).

Whereas “Stayin’ Home” builds, the structure is reversed on “Altitude”. This song bursts right out of the gate, with Wisely singing these memorable words over frisky guitars: “Some call her quiet/others call her just plain weird.” The song then simmers down, to a pleasant mid-tempo pace. The melody moves gracefully, ascending in just the right spots. Wisely sketches in just enough details – his woman apparently tried to do herself in, and he’s waiting by her hospital bed. The only time to crunchy guitar riff comes back in is when he confronts her father: “I visit her father/silent in his wheelchair/told him I know what he’d done/to her sophomore year.” This is a song with an array of moods, from the initial happiness of falling for the girl to the despair of seeing her helpless.

It’s songs like this that exemplify what makes Wisely so special. He crafts songs that are immediately appealing. But some songs clearly have a lot more going on, whether it’s the layers of instruments, or the depth of the lyrics. For example, listen to all the different elements that coalesce on “Joke”, a percolating rock tune that Owsley would be proud to call his own. This song is a real testament to the production, as the song is dominated by the guitars of Wisely and Paul Gilbert, but there’s lots of interesting stuff going on underneath, from the bass playing to the backing vocals, none of it obscured in the mix, put in just the right place.

This attention to detail doesn’t suck the life out of songs, often a problem when so much effort has been expended, it instead enhances the effect of the song. While the aching “Too Quick to Love” would sound great if it were just Wisely playing it on his acoustic, the precise drumming of Peter Anderson and the subtly integrated cello part played by Peggy Baldwin enhance this tale of a busted romance. The subject of the song, set forth in its title, is familiar. Wisely simply does a great job of describing the situation, which may hit close to home for many.

On “Who Blew Out the Sun”, Wisely conjures up a song made for a jazzy French cafe, with a melody reminiscent of Paul McCartney. This song has a melody that begs for a cover by a French chanteuse (maybe one of the Nouvelle Vague gals could have a crack at it). The tune sounds like a standard. It sets up the album closing title track. This is a big pop number, which could be called ballad-y, I suppose. It’s another sad and lonely night, and Wisely is left to playing a Mario Lanza album to try to keep his mind off an old flame. Clearly, she’s the most recent old flame. This song has one of those choruses that is big and expansive. And heading into the final chorus, Wisely raises the emotional temperature. He wants to be with her, he knows that it’s wrong, and he doesn’t want to think about her, but he is thinking about her…the break up Catch-22.

Like the best pop records, even in the face of heartbreak, the quality of the melody and the songs provides some degree of uplift. This is a guitar pop album for grown ups, showing that you can be catchy and mature at the same time.

Irresistible melodies and lyrical artistry is why Los Angeles musician-actor-film composer Wisely is hailed for initiating a heady musical movement called EVOCativePop. Call it what you like, but his latest album, PARADOR, is a powerful reminder that pop music, when not reduced to its most despicable, sugar-coated level, can actually serve as a meaningful form of music. By the way, when we call it “pop music” we’re referring to artists like John Vanderslice and Quruli, not “American Idol” winners. The lead track, “This is Everything,” is featured in the new Andy Dick comedy “Danny Roane: First Time Director” and has the makings of being a big hit. Wisely plays Friday at the Vaudeville Mews at 10 p.m. with Why Make Clocks and Tykes. $5.

Wisely (the new moniker for the artist formerly known as Willie Wisely) hasn’t made a record for almost ten years. Back then he was an underappreciated, very talented practitioner of modern power pop; now he is more grown-up and his 2006 effort, PARADOR, isn’t a record that anyone under the age of 40 should even consider buying. It is a record for people who have lived, loved, lost and found, a record with deep, melancholy shadings that would do nothing but scare the pajamas off of anyone in the middle of enjoying their youth. Produced by Linus of Hollywood with a sure hand, the album is as slick as anything you might hear on the radio with rich layers of guitars, lush vocal harmonies, and a thoroughly professional feel. This slickness serves as camouflage for the bloody heart that beats inside the record, especially the stark and emotional ballads that anchor the album. The first two songs (“This Is Everything,” “Too Quick to Love”) pitch the listener right into the bleak, gray gloom with Wisely emoting over some very austere musical backing. Elsewhere you run across tearjerkers like “Through Any Window,” an intimate and heartbreaking acoustic tune with Wisely’s most affecting vocal performance, the quiet, bossa nova-influenced “Who Blew Out the Sun?,” and the acoustic piece “Parador,” which is a smooth and sophisticated tune with swooning strings, a lovely melody in the chorus, and which is, perhaps, the most effective song on the record. Stacked up, these ballads might be too much to take in one sitting, thankfully there are a batch of lively rockers to contrast with the somber ballads and give the record some balance. Not that all of these up-tempo tracks are light-hearted: “Drink Up” details a modern life thoroughly messed up, “Joke” is about being the butt of one, and “Altitudes” has an achingly sad melody. Only the lovely “Staying Home Again,” a rollicking love song with a nice Pernice Brothers feel, and the swaggering “Let Me Run Wild” give Wisely a chance to break free of the melancholy that pervades the rest of the record. They also help balance the tone of the record and give PARADOR a chance to sink in and grow on the listener. It is the kind of record that needs a few spins to really start to take hold, but once it does, it carries some real emotional power. Willie Wisely fans will be pleased by PARADOR, and his exceedingly adult brand of power pop may even win him some new fans.

Willie Wisely is a genuine pop wizard. Originally from Minneapolis, Wisely, who now lives in Los Angeles, has been putting out great pop records for more than a decade. His most recent, “Parador” (Ella/Not Lame), is a step away from the ’60s pop-infused tracks of his earlier recordings with producer John “Strawberry” Fields and a step toward a bigger more modern sound. The classy, intelligent production is still there, just sans the kitsch, but I also love to see an artist develop, and Wisely just keeps getting better.

On his tour Wisely, who last played Olympia in 2004, will be performing solo. In person, he is engaging, with a child-like enthusiasm and the fashion style of a pop dandy. His performance is always a surprise, and since Fertile Ground has a piano, concretgoers can probably expect to see Wisely tickle the ivories as well as strum and pluck the strings. Speaking of Fertile Ground, this will be the first of what they hope will be many more house concrets. If you are planning on attending make sure to get there in time. The show has a 10pm curfew.

HOLLYWOOD, CA ‹ Singer-songwriter Willie Wisely is currently touring the U.S. in support of his latest release Parador (Ella Records / Not Lame Recordings). Wisely recently made three appearances at SxSW 2006, including a live performance on AustinÕs KXAN-NBC 4. After a West Coast stint, heÕll hit the Midwest and East Coast in May and will be featured on WXPNÕs nationally syndicated radio show World Caf⁄ with David Dye.

Released under the moniker Wisely, Parador sparkles with irresistible melodies and lyrical artistry, spurred by producer and fellow pop wizard Linus of Hollywood and with help from the exceptional talents of Ben Eshbach (Sugarplastic), Probyn Gregory (Brian Wilson), Anna Waronker (that dog.), Heather Reid (Gush) and Paul Gilbert (Racer-X, Mr. Big).

Originally hailing from Minneapolis and now based in L.A., Wisely has been evolving a singular musical style across the considerable span of his broad career, initiating a musical movement called EVOCativePOP, a phrase Joan Anderman of the Boston Globe first used to describe WiselyÕs emotionally powerful and deeply memorable music.

Although Parador marks WiselyÕs first solo effort in eight years, heÕs done an astounding amount of diverse work in that time as a highly sought-after music producer, a film score composer for projects such as WarnerÕs Scooby-Doo animated features and Jenna FischerÕs (of The Office) Lollilove, and as an actor for films and television, including a role in the award-winning HBO series Six Feet Under.

ParadorÕs lead-off track, ÒThis Is Everything?is featured in the most pivotal scene which emphasizes the climactic moment in the new Andy Dick comedy Danny Roane: First Time Director, which debuted at the Õ06 SXSW Film Festival. Wisely songs can also be heard in FoxÕs new hit series The Loop. WiselyÕs 2005 tour of Japan, with San Francisco’s John Vanderslice and multi-platinum selling Japanese artists Quruli, was a sold-out smash.

UPCOMING WISELY TOUR DATES:
5/5 ‹ Des Moines, IA @ Vaudeville Mews
5/6 ‹ Milwaukee, WI @ B.B.C.
5/7 ‹ Indianapolis, IN @ Melody Inn
5/10 ‹ Philadelphia, PA @ World Caf⁄ Live (+ on-air World Caf⁄ w/David Dye!)
5/11 ‹ New York, NY @ The Knitting Factory
5/12 ‹ Asbury Park, NJ @ Asbury Lanes
5/14 ‹ Somerville, MA @ P.A.Õs Lounge
5/16 ‹ Cleveland, OH @ WilbertÕs Food and Music
5/17 ‹ Youngstown, OH @ CedarÕs Lounge
5/18 ‹ Louisville, KY @ Uncle PleasantÕs
5/19 ‹ St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway
5/20 ‹ Racine, WI @ GeorgeÕs Tavern
5/21 ‹ Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity
More to be announced soon!

Willie WiselyÕs first solo release in eight years proves to show he has no rust whatsoever. His music is to be featured in the new Andy Dick movie “Danny Roane: First Time Director” but once you hear him youÕll know itÕs not all hype and buzz. Certainly buzzworthy with his command of catchy harmonies, Wisely turns in a solid solo effort that is sugary with sweet pop melodies. Fantastic my friends, fantastic.

Willie Wisely has been around the music scene in the Minneapolis and Chicago area for the last ten years. ‘Parador’ is Willie’s latest stab at the big time and if there was any justice in the music business then this record would establish Willie’s place next to the likes of Matthew Sweet, Jason Falkner, The Jayhawks, Pete Yorn & The Replacements. The sound is defined as ‘swing-alt-pop’ and whilst Willie’s influences such as Neil Young, Simon & Garfunkel & The Beatles are all in the melting pot – this record stands out on its own merits, as all the songs are stand outs.

Recorded in 2006 with producer Linus of Hollywood, Willie uses French Horn, Cello, Violin, plus the usual suspects of guitar and drums to create 37 minutes of classic pop music. There’s no need to be a snob here, numerous Brit Pop bands would pay a fortune for songs of this calibre. Astute, sharp lyrics combine with soaring choruses and melodies that grow with each listen.

After 2-3 plays this record works its way into your eardrums, not available in the UK at the moment – it’s worth paying the air freight on second thoughts I’ll pop over to the US and grab a handful and sell’m with The Big Issue!

Reviewers Rating: 10 of 10 stars

If you don’t recognize his name, pay attention.

Willie Wisely is one of many showcase artists who have been churning out great music for years and who are now finding new audiences in Austin.

The Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter stopped by the KXAN studio to share a little of what he’s offering at South By Southwest. Namely, some fresh tunes.

“I’m really excited to be at SXSW with a new album in the stores next month,” Wisely said. “It’s a great time to be here. There’s a lot of excitement, and I feel support from a lot of the people, and I guess it’s so fun to come here. I go to a lot of music conferences all over the country, and there just isn’t the sense of ‘music first’ at those other conferences.”

Click on the video links to see Wisely perform two of his songs in full, plus an extended interview.
Exclusive Live Performance: Willie Wisely, “Through Any Window”
Exclusive Live Performance: Willie Wisely, “This Is Everything”
SXSW Extended Interview: Willie Wisely

Our fondness for L.A.’s one-man power-pop institution is no secret, but his latest disc, PARADOR, ups the ante by simultaneously smacking the pleasure center and fingerpicking the heartstrings. This title track (which may or may not reference Paul Mazursky’s banana-republic farce Moon Over Parador) conjures a lush terrain of the soul, but with each repeated injunction to “slip inside this dream of mine,” Wisely’s territory stretches into grander and grander vistas – it’s as though an inviting hammock has turned into a flying carpet. A gifted writer, musician, arranger and singer, Wisely is arguably the leading talent of the pop underground, and his flair for both melodic cogency and sonic atmosphere is hard to beat..

With an emotional openness that hinges on the smooth sounds of his guitar, Willie Wisely has been crafting pop songs since the early 1990s. Recently, he’s been busy, touring and playing at the SxSW conference in support of his new CD, PARADOR.

A Minneapolis native who has relocated to Los Angeles, Wisely has scored and produced music for a variety of film projects, including comedian Andy Dick’s directing debut, Danny Roane: First Time Director. He has also appeared in a number of film and stage productions, from the Bob Crane bio-pic Auto Focus to Lovelace: The Musical.

The energy in the room amped up a bit when Willie Wisely was about to take the stage. Wisely started off his acoustic set with the more serious “Through Any Window,” off PARADOR. The song tells of “early morning when the sun comes through any window,” which brought us through the spectrum of colors that represent that place in your mind between conscious and unconsciousness, and was emphasized by the backdrop of dissonant yet resolved acoustic guitar picking. Wisely livened it up a bit with the comical “National Council of Jewish Women’s Thrift Store”; and he finished his acoustic set with “Raincan” off the 2003 release GO! and “Erase Me.”

Wisely’s back-up band took the stage next with Karen Paurus on back-up vocals, David Hawkenson on bass, Rovert Pavlicsek on guitar and Christopher McGuire on drums with a flashy five-foot-high cymbal. Appropriately, they started out with the dynamic “This Is Everything,” the first song off PARADOR, segueing into “Drink Up,” which gave license to “drink up all your sorrow; drink up it’s almost tomorrow” because, “tomorrow we’re through.”

One of the final songs of the night was the title track off PARADOR, and Wisely invited the audience to “slip inside this dream of mine.” The gentle bass part lent itself perfectly to Hawkenson’s fretless. From the intro to the final background vocals I couldn’t help but be reminded a bit of Cocteau Twins’ vocal effect. Wisely is a successful songster because he’s tapped into universals that make him attainable to his listeners. Whether it’s a song as simple as “Stayin’ Home Again,” or a song as complex as the emotional pitfalls of infatuation in “Too Quick To Love,” Wisely never hides his lyrics behind heavy guitar solos, but rather puts his imagery out there with smart musical accompaniment.