Quiet Hounds Sing About Andersonville

Just gorgeous. I adore how they well they evoke the POW experience with economic means: brief references to the exposure to the weather, the breakdown of law and order, the desire of men and their families to be reunited. I also admire how the hound masks are both a visual pun on the band’s name and distancing devices (as masks are), that could inspire more than one reading: the masked figures as ghosts of the bare-faced POWs, or as stand-ins for the band members (people of the present imagining/viewing the experiences of POWs at Camp Sumter). The song itself is clearly a product of this century, but the use of banjo and mandolin will make many listeners think of the past, as both instruments are associated with folk revival, bluegrass, and old-timey music (genres which are perceived of as old, even if history tells a rather more complicated story).