Son of a preacher man, judge and Congressman, Mark Charles Heidinger was given a golden pocket watch owned, wound, and regularly counseled by each male in his paternal line. On the backside of the watch was engraved a family name, passed down for more than a century like the timepieces that followed; that name was Vandaveer. Since that time, Heidinger knew what the name of his band would be he just needed the members. Eventually piecing together a group and entering a studio, Vandaveer's debut album, Grace and Speed was well received for it's sparseness. Now one album in, Vandaveer's latest album Divide and Conquer takes the sparseness on that debut and builds upon it.
Unfortunately, while things may be less sparse than they were on Vandaveer's debut, they aren't any more exciting. This is folk music pure and simple and I'm just not a fan of this kind of stuff. To be honest, I can only take so many songs w/just an acoustic guitar and the occasional piano to keep it company because I can't really stand either of those instruments. Divide and Conquerjust never seems to be anything but yawn inducing and the songs that are contained within it seem to meander on and on and on. Having reviewed the perfect example of how good folksong can be with Lord Cut-Glass, Vandaveer stands as the exact opposite by unintentionally being so dull that watching golf on TV seems like a far more exciting proposition.
Divide and Conquer simply has no edge to it. In listening to a song like, "A Mighty Leviathan of Old," one can't help but just want to stand up and yell, "Get on with it, will ya!" because by about the fourth song, you just want it to be over. As you can probably tell, I'm not a fan of quiet, intimate songs that are simplistic, sparse, and offer no excitement. I like a little more excitement in my music, and there are far better records out there that are just as sparse but know how to spin it to their advantage so that you can't turn away. That being said, the band's origin is pretty cool!
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