Wade Easy is a musician based in Morgantown, West Virginia, and Sea of Night is his second full-length album, arriving less than a year after his debut Sleeping With the Sun On. I’m finishing this review on the eve of a two-day festival I’m organizing, dedicated to the many forms of folk music – not only concerts, but also talks, listening sessions, and long nights where the bar soundtrack moves freely from the 1960s to the present day. Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, Lankum, Adrianne Lenker, Mount Eerie – you name it. And over the past few weeks, I realized I absolutely had to add Wade Easy to that playlist of essentials, because Sea of Night genuinely feels like a hidden gem within contemporary folk music.
The album contains eleven songs, and from the very first moments of Where the River Sinks, it evokes an almost timeless atmosphere. It reminds me of wandering along American rivers a few years ago, but also of riding aimlessly through the nocturnal landscapes of Red Dead Redemption II. There’s something deeply cinematic about it – campfire nights completely cut off from civilization, staring silently at deer in the distance while the world seems to dissolve into darkness around you.
The second song, Dead Moons, pushes things forward with more electric guitar presence and introduces an uncompromisingly dirty riff that cuts through the haze. The vocals remain restrained, almost whispered in a lo-fi fashion, which only deepens the hypnotic atmosphere. Yet this track is ultimately built around that disarming riff that keeps echoing throughout the song, making it one of the album’s most immediate moments.
I also have to say that placing Reviver next in the tracklist was a brilliant decision. It’s vocally sparse and flows more gently, allowing the instrumentation to breathe while the occasional vocal lines drift in and out almost like distant thoughts. The following songs, So It Goes and especially Sweet Thing, are defined by an incredibly meditative atmosphere (if you’re into psychedelics, I can only imagine how unforgettable these tracks must feel in the right setting…)
At the center of the album sits the more traditional-sounding Something in the Rye, though once the vocals arrive, the song slowly slips back into that eerie, slightly disturbing mood that reminds me of records by Dave Bixby. The seventh track, The Bloody Feet of Atomic Beasts, is among the album’s most energetic pieces, and the shift around the 1:20 mark is honestly one of my favorite moments on the entire record. The frantic instrumental passage almost sounds like Have a Nice Life if they fully embraced dark country influences.
One of the most striking moments in the latter half of the album is the six-and-a-half-minute title track, Sea of Night. The song unfolds with an extremely slow-burning progression, and although you keep expecting some huge cathartic explosion around the corner, the track instead surprises through restraint. Rather than building toward a dramatic climax, it gradually drifts deeper into a meditative, drone-like state, making the whole experience even more absorbing.
The closing Sailor’s Warning is probably the album’s closest approach to traditional folk songwriting, whether through its rhythm, melody, or production. Yet even here, the dark undercurrent never disappears, helped above all by the dirty electric guitar textures swirling all around the song.
Overall, what deserves the most praise is the album’s sound and coherence as a whole. Sea of Night feels incredibly unique while remaining completely natural and unforced – something that feels twice as valuable in an era where so much music can sound overly polished or artificial. Wade Easy has created a record that feels lived-in, immersive, and emotionally honest, balancing folk tradition with ambient psychedelia, lo-fi intimacy, and unsettling nocturnal beauty. It’s an album that feels like a strange dream… one you keep remembering fondly for a long time afterward.
This album was discover via Submit Hub
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