M. Ward, Coming to Bimbo’s on Monday, Specializes in Finding “Light and Shadows”
Photo Credit: Autumn de Wilde
Throughout his celebrated, 25-year career, M. Ward has managed to sound both timeless and timely—feeling completely of the moment and also like a holdover from some lost, distant era.
His raspy, forlorn vocals and barebones instrumental setup recall mythological figures such as Lead Belly and Hank Williams, but his influence can be clearly felt in contemporary artists like Hayden Pedigo and Ryley Walker.
He's managed to deftly transcend those competing forces—seamlessly bridging disparate eras and epochs—through an uncanny knack for finding common ground. Ward doesn’t try to define or defend that talent—he attributes that gift as something that just happens during his creative process.
“So much of writing is walking blindly into every song, not knowing exactly what you are doing,” said Ward. “I think the most important thing is to not have any fear of what’s going to happen when you’re alone in a room with a guitar.”
A certain kind of fearlessness has been a core component of all Ward albums, most notably in his 2003 breakout hit, “The Transfiguration of Vincent,” which he’ll play in full at Bimbo’s 365 Club on Monday. That record, made in the wake of his close friend’s death (the titular Vincent), set the template for Ward’s specialty of finding the gray area between then and now—of locating that balance between joy and pain.
The album has plenty of melancholic moments, but it is never morose or hopeless. Always a skilled wordsmith, Ward’s wry, mordant lyrics provide levity to heavy topics—managing to uncover the absurdity of daily existence, even topics as wholly sacred as love and death.
“When I’m in the writing process and something is too obviously sad or too obviously happy, it just doesn’t have staying power for me,” said Ward, who will also be playing at the Felton Music Hall on Saturday, during his swing through the Bay Area. “If it’s minor chords, singing sad lyrics, with no sense of humor or insight at all, it never really makes it to the studio. I like to have songs that have a good balance of light and shadow.”
Those gradations are found throughout “The Transfiguration of Vincent,” as Ward’s pitch black humor can be found in songs like “Undertaker,” a joyous paean to the wonders of love that is punctuated by the ominous chorus, “Oh but if you're gonna leave/Better call the undertaker.”
Never are the disparate emotions more profound and heartfelt than in the glowing ode to the album’s subject matter. On “Vincent O’Brien,” Ward plaintively sings, “he only laughs when he's sad/And he's sad all the time, so he laughs the whole night through,” although paired with an uproarious boogie woogie piano and knifing, distorted guitar lines, that line feels more like a celebration than a wake.
The root of the “Transfiguration of Vincent” tour started two years ago, when a friend of Ward’s introduced him to three musicians from Australia, who were fans of the singer-songwriter. Performing as M. Ward and the Undertakers (an ode to the song from the album), the group barnstormed through Australia, Japan, Europe and America’s East Coast. Now, this winding journey has taken them to the West Coast, where they’ll perform a series of shows stretching from New Mexico to Vancouver.
Included in the “Transfiguration of Vincent” setlists is Ward’s unique take on the David Bowie classic, “Let’s Dance,” the penultimate track on the 2003 album. Unlike the original, Ward’s version is a languorous, loping dustbowl tune, with the chorus refrain sounding more like an exhausted sigh of defeat than a glorious act of celebration.
“I was in love with that whole record in high school, but the production on that particular song never spoke to me,” said Ward. “But I always loved the lyrics, so I wanted to see what would happen if you stripped everything back. I started performing it live and got some really interesting reactions. It’s definitely a deconstruction of the song, but I like how it turned out.”
With a tour covering half the globe, it’s already been an eventful year for Ward, but after this string of West Coast shows winds down, he said he’ll focus on writing for his next album, a follow-up to 2023’s “Supernatural Thing.” For that effort, Ward said he’ll decamp to Europe for some recording sessions.
He’s also put the backburner on his myriad other projects, including She & Him, his long-running duet project with the actress Zooey Deschanel. The last She & Him release was a tribute album to Brian Wilson, who helped contribute vocals to the record. Ward recently attended the funeral for the late Beach Boys legend, who passed away on June 11.
“We were able to work together on several projects,” said Ward. “He was one of the biggest influences of my life. His memorial was beautiful—just a very powerful and very heavy moment.”
Looking back on that event, Ward spoke with a mixture of sadness and gratitude, that same beguiling mix that inflects so much of his work. He said he’s excited to be returning to play San Francisco after a lengthy absence, eager to perform an album that’s both mournful and celebratory, light and dark, modern and ageless.
“It’s never been too painful to revisit that time or this album,” said Ward. “It’s a combination of emotions, and that’s what makes it interesting.”
Show Details:
M. Ward and the Undertakers with Bebe Stockwell
Where: Bimbo’s 365 Club
When: 8 p.m., Monday, July 21
Tickets: $46.36, available here.