The Decemberists

The Decemberists, in The Hazards of Love, have created an incredible piece of work - it's for people who love reading beautifully-written stories, for those who love theater, and the opera, and for those who love to be wowed by talented musicians.

It's a concept album - a rock opera, if that's not too dated a description for a musical production. It tells the story of a fair maiden Margaret and her lover William, of his surrogate mother the Queen, and the evil Rake, of love, abduction, raging waters, rescue and...

Here's a link to the lyrics - you can read them as a story without hearing a note of music and become smitten. But then - listen.

We saw them last night - they did the entire album from beginning to end. What a show! They all played multiple instruments, the lighting was spectacular and they performed the story as they played and sang.

After The Hazards of Love they took a break and came back to delight the crowd with a handful of songs from other albums as well as a few new ones. Colin Meloy has such an engaging demeanor on stage - I am a card-carrying Decemberists fan for life.