I’ve been foisting Little Wings’ excellent new album Explains on anyone who gives me even the slightest opening. It’s by no means a break with the rest of Kyle Field’s long, winding discography, but it is his first release on Woodsist — the label run by seminal New York psych-country fuzzers Woods — and thus it has bumped his profile significantly.

Field seems to instinctively understand the core of what makes a song tick, whether it be his own or those by other artists, and he’s previously covered musicians as disparate as Lil Wayne and Van Morrison. I do not like it when folky musicians cover rap, and yet he even managed to treat Wayne’s “Promise” with real tenderness that reveals this whole other underbelly of the song.

Given those preexisting covers, it’s not surprise that the Little Wings take on what may be Madonna’s ultimate ballad is shattering. Stripping away the slow-coursing ’80s synths and fitting “Live To Tell” with a sneaky little guitar riff instead, Field preserves all the regret and longing in the song and reforms it for his quick drawl. Listen.

Here’s his upcoming tour dates:
07/18 Los Angeles, CA @ El Cid
07/28 San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall
09/05 Portland, ME @ The Space
09/06 Portsmouth, NH @ 3S Arts Space
09/09 Providence, RI @ Columbus Theatre
09/10 Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade
09/12 Baltimore, MD @ The Crown
09/15 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
09/17 Durham, NC @ Pinhook
09/18 Asheville, NC @ Mothlight