Little Wings

Originally established amid the coastal setting of San Luis Obispo, California, Little Wings absorbed the surrounding locale into its sonic identity. The project centers on principal songwriter and frontman Kyle Field, whose revolving circle of collaborators has at times featured drummer Adam Selzer, keyboardist Rob Kieswetter, and bassist Mark Leece. Issued by Walking Records in 1999, the debut Discover Worlds of Wonder offered a dreamy, balladic homage to the surreal qualities of present-day California scenery. Its slightly off-key narratives touched on skateboarding legends, freeway congestion, and concealed West Coast beach canyons, merging a postmodern Beach Boys sensibility with warm alt-country textures. Following work with assorted regional musicians, among them Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Field relocated from California to Portland, Oregon, allowing the Pacific Northwest’s unspoiled natural character to shape the next phase of Little Wings’ development and to sustain the group’s interest in unconventional song forms. The Internet-only follow-up Wonder City, credited to Field and Whitney Moon, extended the loosely thematic “Wonder Trilogy” in 2000. Wonderue brought the trilogy to a close in 2002; Light Green Leaves appeared later the same year. Harvest Joy surfaced the year afterward, and Field maintained his steady output with 2004’s Magic Wand. K Records issued the subsequent collection of abstract bursts, Grow, in 2005, after which he shifted toward more conventional territory on the sleepy Soft Pow'r in 2007. Later albums comprise the pastoral and heartfelt Black Grass from 2011, Last from 2013, and Explains from 2015.