Onward Etc – Sonder On

Energetic folk three piece, Onward Etc are offering us a second installment into their nomadic musical journeys, with their forthcoming album, “Sonder On,” – and it’s a colorful collection of spirited folk and warm ballads that get the heart racing and the feet moving.

Right from the opening moments of the album with the dizzying strings of “Leaving Home,” the three-piece start their journey. With frontman Rosco Wuestewald reminding us that,  “with his brothers//he’s never felt more alive,” it’s about time we packed our bags and joined him.

The track eases off into the energetic battle song, “Crazy Horse,” and into the anthemic “oh-oh” opening of uplifting ballad, “Dressed In Dandelions.” “It must be love,” swoons Wuestewald, who has spent most of his career as a traveling musician, touring with UK folk group, Skinny Lister on Warped Tour and then on Flogging Molly’s Green 17 tour in 2013.

Throughout his travels to all corners of the country, it seems Wuestewald has picked up an eclectic collection of musical influences which shine through on Sonder On. With the help of violinist, KC Olsen and percussionist Tom Pearson, the three cohesively tie together a signature folk sound that, in some moments, much like in the almost breakdown of “Have Your Guns,” borders on punk.

With glowing trumpets and dueling banjos, the stand out track, Revolution, comes late in the album (although we’re not mad about the journey we took to get there), and perfectly displays these punk rock roots with a call and response chorus that is impossible not to sing along with, cementing the bands sound.

Sonder On is a mature follow up from the bands first release, Old Soul, and features several songs heard on the first album, only to see them return with a sense of clarity and somewhat-less lo-fi quality to them. Nevertheless, the heart and soul of the three-piece remains, and can be heard poured into every whiskey drowned lyric and guitar twang.

Sonder On is due March 11 via DC-Jam Records.