Album Notes

Spirit Duplicator is the second album by the Wingdale Community Singers, and it sounds like their
first album, released in 2005 on Plain Recordings, in the way that Revolver sounds like Meet the
Beatles. Which is to say it’s by the same band, but exhibits undeniable growth in both sound and
songwriting. If The Wingdale Community Singers have always been from an indeterminate era,
rooted in the indigenous folk music of the last century, Spirit Duplicator plumbs the vast diversity
of that music, with hints of gospel, country, bluegrass, shape note hymnody, cabaret, and Old
Time, and, truth be told, a little rock and roll too, especially mid-sixties chamber pop and folk
rock. Throughout, there are a lot of vocal harmonies, from all four members of the band--David
Grubbs, Nina Katchadourian, Hannah Marcus, and Rick Moody--and compositions from various
combinations of most of the group. Recorded at Seaside Lounge Studios, in Brooklyn, with
stellar arrangements by the band, especially by studio wizard David Grubbs, and noteworthy
for session performances from a number of great players in the Brooklyn scene, Spirit Duplicator
represents a gigantic leap forward from a stealthy if ambitious all-star lineup (improved by the
presence of new member Katchadourian) and a rewarding contribution to contemporary urban
acoustic music.