Photo Credit: Steph Heath with Smiling Eyes Media

John Mailander’s Forecast has unveiled its spellbinding adaptation of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Little Wheel Spin and Spin.” Today’s Relix exclusive reverberates George Santayana’s aphorism, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” and underscores that astute truth by way of Mailander’s instrumental expertise as a conductor, crafting soundscapes that carry a current that whips with the force of the Santa Ana winds against the fins of a Mojave weathervane. The single and visual equalizer arrive ahead of the group’s EP, Little Wheel // Hope Looming, which is due out independently on Friday, May 8. 

The urgent lead single advances Mailander’s status as a Nashville-based innovator by demonstrating each apparatus in his highly developed toolkit: an understanding of timing, sharing space, and bolstering emotions through the glide of his bow, all with stinging accuracy. “Little Wheel Spin and Spin” follows the ensemble’s Let The World In cut of Nick Drake’s “Road,” with an innate, exploratory circulation that builds on borrowed material, resuscitates it, and maneuvers it into the present era. 

Speaking about the release, Mailander recounted his path to finding the track and its enduring draw: “‘Little Wheel Spin And Spin’ is a song by Buffy Sainte-Marie that she first released in 1966. My Nashville friend (and musical peer) Jack Silverman first showed me the song a few years ago, in a video of Buffy’s performance on Pete Seeger’s Rainbow Quest show. It gave me chills how potent these lyrics are, along with her direct, uncompromising delivery of the message. I’ve kept the song in the back of my mind ever since then to explore with Forecast.

In February, our friend Dan Davis from Southern Ground Studio reached out about doing some recording together. Stars aligned where the whole band was in town for one day, and it felt like the right time. Our longtime collaborator, Forecaster Kristina Train, sang the lead vocal here in one live take with the band. I feel she brought a renewed fire and urgency to the song. Jake Stargel adapted Buffy’s original open-tuned trance guitar part, which centers the track, with group improvisation surrounding it.”

Beyond each of the collective’s necessary parts in the cover’s construction–bass (Ethan Jodziewicz), guitars (Chris Lippincott, Jake Stargel), saxophone (Dean Miller), percussion (Mark Raudabaugh)–it’s Kristina Train’s caliber as a vocalist that drives the meaning even further, evoking imagery of art history’s multi-generation expression of feminine pain, range and mourning: hands tugging hair in a fit of emotion [Think: Francesco Francia’s “Woman Pulling Her Hair,” circa 1515]. Here, “Little Wheel Spin and Spin” does just that by propelling germane awareness through Mailander’s reinforcement of conscientious, musical stewardship.

The Forecast’s take on the number demands a red boot stomp in fierce circles of fury as it builds and contracts to a deep state of instrumental psychosis. “Little Wheel Spin and Spin” blows through a weathervane below. Feel the gale below, and learn more about John Mailander.

Purchase Little Wheel // Hope Looming.

Lyrics:

Little Wheel Spin and Spin
Big wheels turn around & around
Little Wheel Spin and Spin
Big wheels turn around & around

Merry Christmas Jingle Bells
Christ is born and the devils in hell
hearts they shrink Pockets swell

Everybody know and nobody tell

Oh the sins of Caesars men
cry the pious citizens
who petty thieve the 5 & 10s
and the big wheels turn around and around

Blame the angels, blame the fates,
Blame religion or your sister Kate
Teach your children how to hate
and the big wheels turn around and around
Turn your back on weeds youve hoed
silly sinful seeds youve sowed
Add your straw to the camels load
and the big wheels turn around and around

Swing your girl fiddler say

Later on the piper pay

Do see do, swing and sway

Dead will dance on judgment day