We’ve all experienced a certain kind of mystery surrounding the woods. Since we were young, we’ve been told to stay on the trail, not to go out there at night and by all means, never go in alone. The woods represent a primal danger and a place where reality is just a little bit altered. While beautiful, the woods can be deadly. Though this is something often referenced in fairytales, the iconography of forest imagery has made its way into music as well.
Song One: “Teddy Bear’s Picnic” by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman
This is one you might recognize from childhood, but after its success as a nursery-rhyme style children’s song, members of the Grateful Dead revamped it to give it an eerie sound. Jerry Garcia is the lead guitarist and vocalist of Grateful Dead and played with them the entire span of the band’s 30-year lifetime. He also participated in many side projects as well as releasing his own solo albums. In 2003, Garcia was named as number 13 to the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” presented by Rolling Stone. David Grisman is an American mandolinist who met Garcia in San Francisco and appeared on the Dead’s album American Beauty. He is known for creating “Dawg Music,” the combination of bluegrass, folk and jazz stylings.
The song follows the mystical story of a gathering of teddy bears playing games and having a snack in the woods. While the song seems innocent enough, the lyrics hold some chilling undertones. In the first verse, Garcia sings “If you go out in the woods today, you better go in disguise.” These words can be written off as harmless if you interpret them to mean that the child must disguise themselves as a bear in order to attend the picnic; however, just exactly what the teddy bears are eating at their picnic is never specified. Further, the song says “Every teddy bear who’s ever been good is sure of a treat today.” The words become unnerving when prefaced by the fact that the song revolves around a child sneaking into the woods. Maybe these teddies are just having tea, but if I were going into the woods, I’d keep my eyes open.
Song Two: “In the Woods Somewhere” by Hozier
Hozier has been a prominent figure in music since the release of “Take Me to Church” in 2013. The same year, this Irish musician icon released his debut album Hozier which went six-time platinum in Ireland and multi-platinum in several other countries. After a long hiatus, fans were pleased when Hozier released his EP Nina Cried Power in late 2018 and followed it with a second studio album Wasteland, Baby! which came out in March 2019. Raised in the Protestant Quaker faith in County Wicklow, Hozier has been writing songs since the age of fifteen. For coming from such a humble upbringing, Hozier has certainly come far.
“In the Woods Somewhere” speaks to a more primitive attachment to nature. Some feel that the song draws strong parallels to Dante’s Inferno as that story too begins in the woods. In the beginning lines of the song, Hozier sings “My head was war. My skin was soaked. I called your name ‘til the fever broke.” Here the song draws on a state of confusion and a lack of awareness of one’s surroundings. He is calling out to find someone he supposedly lost in this wood, but he himself gets lost instead. He then describes the sighting of a fox in the woods and realizes that the fox was fatally injured. He sings “I raised a stone to end his pain” to illustrate the merciful killing of the creature. It is said that foxes are often representative of tricksters, therefore the song could represent a sort of killing of his own mischievous or playful nature and replacing it with something more carnal. Whatever Hozier is looking for in those woods, I hope he finds it.
Song Three: “Meet Me in the Woods” by Lord Huron
Lord Huron is a Los Angeles-based indie folk band. Their name, as it might suggest, was inspired by band founder Ben Schneider’s visits to Lake Huron as a child and spent nights playing music around campfires. The band’s debut album Lonesome Dreams was released in 2012. The current band lineup consists of Ben Schneider, Mark Barry, Miguel Briseño and Tom Renaud. They first came into recognition after their song “The Night We Met” was featured in the hit Netflix television show 13 Reasons Why. The band recently released a third studio album Vide Noir on April 20th, 2018.
The speaker of “Meet Me in the Woods” seems to be traveling through a state of altered reality. It is possible that the “great unknown” he references is in correlation with a dream-like daze. He mentions meeting “forces that our eyes can’t see,” which begs the question of what those forces might be. He could be referring to heavenly or demonic figures, perhaps making his journey into the unknown a story of death and resurrection. When he wakes from this place, he asks how long he’s been away and tells someone (supposedly a wife or girlfriend) that “the truth is stranger than [his] own worst dreams.” Here he has succumbed to the darkness and then asks for this other person to come with him into the woods. Whatever he’s found out there, maybe it’s better left alone.
Song Four: “Wolf River” by The Careful Ones
The Careful Ones are a folk music band out of Central Florida. The band has released three albums, their debut being Moths, Flames, Etc. Since 2011, the band has garnered fans from all across the world and their music has been streamed millions of times. While the members all moved their separate ways (getting married, having kids, etc.), they have still maintained a close connection with each other and their fans. The band still writes music together, even though their personal lives are busy. In 2018, they released two new singles, “Rockin’ the Free World” and “Just What I Needed.”
“Wolf River,” while not explicitly about the woods, is a song about trust and remembrance of a longtime relationship. It uses the idea of the river to convey a sense of peace and acceptance for the two to move on. The song starts with the lines “pain meets cold when your love breaks hold.” The speaker in this story feels a sense of grief and numbness over the loss of someone who has played such an important role in his life. He follows this statement by saying “If you come around today, I can’t promise that it wouldn’t hurt.” He knows that things are over and can’t be prepared, but he doesn’t want to give up on the history he has with this other person. He asks them to “follow [him] down to the wolf river” as a way to cleanse them both of the memories they’ll be leaving behind.
Song Five: “The Wolves” by Ben Howard
English singer-songwriter Ben Howard is an indie folk musician. His debut album Games in the Dark was self-released in 2008. He is now signed to Island Records, having released his first studio album Every Kingdom in 2011. In 2013, he received the Brit Award for British Male Solo Artist. Since 2017, he has also been a member of the band A Blaze of Feather.
There is no creature that roams the woods quite like the wolf. Spanning as far back as “Little Red Riding Hood,” wolves have always found their way into people’s stories. “The Wolves” illustrates the difficulties of navigating relationships as it explores the nature of argument. This song represents a couple that is completely worn out from fighting and at their wits’ ends. The speaker tells the audience “We lost faith in the arms of love.” There was once a deep connection between the two, but now they feel as though they have nowhere to go because they’ve just been “fighting with the wolves.” Through this song, there is a deterioration of patience and trust. Ultimately, they are left to wonder if they are better without each other.
Song Six: “Rivers and Roads” by The Head and the Heart
Formed in 2009 by Josiah Johnson and Jonathan Russell, The Head and the Heart is an American indie folk band from Seattle, Washington. The band lineup also includes violinist, guitarist and vocalist Charity Rose Thielen, bassist Chris Zasche, pianist Kenny Hensley and drummer Tyler Williams. After having released three albums, in 2016 Johnson went on hiatus from the band due to health issues, but they plan to release their fourth album, Living Mirage, on May 17th of 2019.
“Rivers and Roads” is a song about closing distance. The speaker is afraid of everyone around him leaving and wishes to hold onto the friendships he has. He sings “A year from now we’ll all be gone” because he knows that as people grow older, their lives diverge on different paths. He uses this song as a reflection because he’s “been talkin’ bout the way things change.” He knows that it’s unrealistic of him to expect that all of his relationships with people will stay the same over time, but he needs reassurance that there’s still a way to get to them. The “rivers and roads,” miles of woods between him and his loved ones, are not enough to keep him from getting to them.
Song Seven: “Woods” by Bon Iver
Bon Iver is an indie folk band founded by Justin Vernon in 2006. While the band name sounds like a name in itself, it is actually derived from the French term bon hiver which translates to mean “good winter.” In 2007, the band self-released their first album For Emma, Forever Ago which was almost exclusively recorded in a cabin Vernon isolated himself in for three months. The band won amazing achievements at the 2012 Grammys, winning the titles of Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music.
Though the lyrics to this song are few, they hold a certain power behind them. The repetition of the line “I’m up in the woods. I’m down on my mind” serves as the basis of “Woods.” Here, the speaker is addressing the lack of certainty that comes with immersing yourself in an unfamiliar space. It seems as though he sought out the calm of the woods to clear his head, but only came to face more questions for himself. In the other repeated line, he sings “I’m building a sill to slow down the time.” In this case, sill likely refers to the sheet of igneous rock formed between existing strata. He wants to solidify his life so that he doesn’t have to keep being bombarded with all these unanswerable questions.
Though the woods can be an enticing and inviting place, they are also one of confusion and disorientation. Many people go to the wilderness to find themselves, but some come back more lost than found.
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