The Chronicles of Wino, Vol 1: Spirit Caravan

I owe Scott 'Wino' Weinrich a drink. Not in the sense that alot of metalhead dudebros would think, handing him some lukewarm Bud Light, giving him the cliche 'hail satan' metal salute, yelling something like "FUCKING METAL!!!" and then scampering off to relay the story to anyone willing to listen. If possible, I'd want to hand him four fingers of Bulleit bourbon (no water, no ice), shake the man's hand and simply say "Thanks" and walk away. I mean, after all, its the very least I could do for the person who was single-handedly responsible for rekindling my faith and interest in achingly slow, crushing (dare I say) "stoner" rock.

Spirit Caravan specifically recaptured my interest in a genre that, for a time, seemed somewhat stagnant. Of course, I fully acknowledge a certain level of redundancy that goes into this musical personality, along with the terribly obvious Black Sabbath mimickry and the weed references that try so hard that they sting you like a bad joke made by a teacher of yours in high school. These things never bothered me. But a few years back I began to find that my anticipation for a given band's new record was always met with some level of disappointment. Dead Meadow's 'Feathers' (2005) and Neurosis' 'The Eye of Every Storm' (2004) were two such disappointments. Of course my own limited knowledge of some of the variety of bands in the genre didn't help and soon enough, I found that my interest had waned to the point where these bands seemed like all but a distant memory.

Years later, a friend of mine let me borrow his copy of Spirit Caravan's Dreamwheel EP (1999) and I was blown away. I was in my car when I first put it on and nearly pulled over just to take in exactly what was pouring out of my speakers. I was so enthralled, in fact, that when I got to my destination, I put the CD in my friend's stereo and made him listen to it before any further conversation was had. We both simply sat there and smiled.

And while I learned that Spirit Caravan had, by that point, ceased to exist, the discovery of this one band completely redirected my interest almost immediately. Plodding riffs, an amazing voice, and intelligable, everyman-esque lyrics help make Spirit Caravan one of my favorite bands of all time. There's something incredibly interesting about Wino's songwriting in how he can write undeniably heavy, crushing songs without making them completely alienating. They're beautiful in that sense. This beauty encapsulates the very reason why Spirit Caravan is my favorite of all his projects thus far.

If you are unfamiliar with Spirit Caravan, I would strongly recommend tracking down the 2004 compilation album The Last Embrace, which contains 19 tracks from their first two full length albums, some unreleased tracks, and all of their singles. The one glaring omission from this collection, however, is the aforementioned Dreamwheel EP. You can download that via the link below. Also, be sure to check out the Youtube audio track posted below. The track is entitled Sea Legs, from their first full length album, Jug Fulla Sun.

Download the Dreamwheel EP here.