You've probably never heard of Packwood, Iowa. It is one of many rural towns scattered across the midwest, farming towns that were settled in the 19th century and which are declining today as people move away. The loss of rural America provides songwriter Steve Klingaman's theme for Packwood. The songs look at life in this particular small town from many different angles, but some motifs recur: the difficulty of making a living from farming, exile, the passage of time.

A native midwesterner, Klingaman is a veteran of the music business who has been writing songs and playing in various bands since the 1970s. He no longer tours and now concentrates on studio recordings instead. The arrangements are mostly acoustic but electric guitars, synthesizer and drums make a few appearances, not always with the best results. Most of the tracks have a stripped-down sound that suits the subject matter better. Klingaman is not blessed with the best singing voice in the world, but he presents the songs well in spite of that. There are a few guest musicians, but Klingaman makes most of the music himself. This is not surprising, considering that he produced Packwood himself in his home studio; he wrote all of the songs, as well. The CD booklet gives full lyrics, lists additional musicians (if any) on each track and is illustrated with old Klingaman family photos for a nice continuation of the album's theme.

All of the songs are set in and around Packwood, using the locale to tell their stories. This approach is most successful in a song like "Willard and Beulah," which tells the story of the community during the Depression. Although Klingaman doesn't say so in the liner notes, it sounds like the story of two real people. "Doing What We Can," on the other hand, reiterates the time-worn theme of, "life is hard but we'll keep trying," without grounding it in the kind of detail that makes the catchy "Saturday Night in Packwood" a little more than a generic song about high school infatuation.

"Irena Cross the Ocean" is a lullaby sung to a little girl who will soon be leaving her homeland to join her father in America. The opposite side of this coin is "Marie LaFleur," which tells the story of an Acadian woman who marries a Protestant farmer and feels like an outcast in the small farm town, away from her home. In it, Klingaman skillfully evokes her loneliness and transcends the fact that this is the story of people who lived and died long ago. Joel Zifkin (currently violinist with Kate and Anna McGarrigle) adds some fine violin work to this and four other tracks; Klingaman and he co-founded the folk group Harlequin in the 1970s. The closing track is an apt farewell: in "Five Pines," the narrator muses on the transience of human life through the image of five displaced pine trees planted around the family farmhouse on the plain.

On Packwood, Steve Klingaman shows that he can take the nuts and bolts of rural life and turn them into effective songs. If he continues to take this as a subject, he will be treading a path that has brought acclaim to songwriters such as Lucinda Williams and Slaid Cleaves, among others. Only time will tell if Steve Klingaman goes down this road, but Packwood is a solid start in that direction.

- Rambles
written by Jennifer Hanson
published 2 November 2002