{"title":"The Welcome Wagon","description":"The Welcome Wagon is a folk-gospel duo from Brooklyn, New York, consisting of pastor Vito Aiuto and his wife Monique, whose music blends hymn-like reverence with warm, indie-folk arrangements. Their debut album \u003cem\u003eWelcome To The Welcome Wagon\u003c\/em\u003e was produced by Sufjan Stevens and introduced their deeply devotional yet intimately personal sound to a wider audience. Fans of quietly profound, faith-rooted songwriting will find their catalog — including \u003cem\u003ePrecious Remedies Against Satan's Devices\u003c\/em\u003e — a genuinely moving and unhurried listen.","products":[{"product_id":"welcome-to-welcome-wagon-cd","title":"Welcome To The Welcome Wagon CD","description":"The debut album by The Welcome Wagon unveils a ramshackle sing-a-long enterprise of a Presbyterian pastor (the Rev. Vito Aiuto) and his wife (Monique) wrestling out the influences of folk music, religion, popular culture, and church tradition in a collection of songs that is as soulful as it is good-humored.  This gorgeous brew is reflected in the group's repertoire, which unflinchingly consolidates a vast history of \"sacred\" song traditions: from Old Testament psalms, to Presbyterian Psalters of the 17th century, to iconoclastic pop innovators of the 1960s (The Velvet Underground), to charismatic Catholics of the 1970s (Lenny Smith), and into the melancholy lovelorn pop of the 1980s (The Smiths).  There are even a few originals.  Armed with a particleboard parlor guitar and a plastic glockenspiel, pastor and wife stumble their way through an arresting catalog of hymns-hallowed and unholy-with the simple desire to know their Maker-and to know each other-more intimately.  The result-due, in part, to producer\/arranger Sufjan Stevens-is an awe-inspiring collection of hymns, pop covers, and originals that render soulful stunts from quiet skirmishes of home recordings.  Gathering together a camaraderie of musical helpers (among them members of Vito's church: a gospel choir, lap steel guitar, upright bass, and a brass ensemble), Sufjan enlivens The Welcome Wagon's quaint haberdashery of songs with epic flourishes, drawing out allusions to honky-tonk, Broadway theater, and funk with the curatorial eye of an over-excited musicologist.  The final product results in a stunning cross section of rehearsals and home recordings serendipitously captured in living rooms, churches, and home studios across Brooklyn and Queens over the course of some eight-odd years.  The Welcome Wagon observe a musical tradition conjoined with marriage that pays tribute to a long line of iconic couples-Johnny Cash and June Carter, Sonny and Cher, Ike and Tina, Captain and Tennille, and more recently, The White Stripes.  The Welcome Wagon also reside in the fussy category called \"church music,\" where family and theology have long accompanied the musical deeds of married partners: the Original Carter Family, Bill and Gloria Gaither, and Mom and Pop Winans are a few examples.  You'd be hard pressed to call the Welcome Wagon a groundbreaking supplement to the genre of gospel duos.  They are not flashy performers.  Their hymns- when stripped of a producer's vigorous arrangements-are modest, understated, and idiosyncratic shrugs compared to the furious pathos of Blind Willie Johnson and his wife Willie B., or the bluesy emotion of The Consolers.  But the apparent lack of hyperbole and didacticism, the absence of rhetorical drama and religious fervor are what make the music of the Welcome Wagon so fascinating.  It doesn't impose its religious pitch on the listener with hyped up garnishes of sound; it merely conveys the deepest of convictions with the deadpan verdict of a surgeon.  Sure, their debut album unveils showy guitar riffs, piano codas, harmonica solos, a rowdy chorus, and an imposing flourish of brass instruments like wartime canons.  But at the heart of it-if you really listen carefully-there's really just a pastor and his wife tentatively singing in the quiet privacy of their own home.\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCD Details\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRelease Date: December 09, 2008\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRecord Label: Asthmatic Kitty\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUPC: 656605604527\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNumber of Discs: 1\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"The Welcome Wagon","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":23772250369,"sku":"The Welcome Wagon (1)","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1398\/5745\/files\/The_Welcome_Wagon_Welcome_To_The_Welcome_Wagon_CD.jpg?v=1769887185"},{"product_id":"welcome-wagon-precious-remedies","title":"Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices CD","description":"Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices is the 2012 release from The Welcome Wagon, the musical duo of Vito and Monique Aiuto, a Presbyterian pastor and his wife.  \u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCD Details\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRelease Date: June 12, 2012\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRecord Label: Asthmatic Kitty\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUPC: 656605609225\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNumber of Discs: 1\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"The Welcome Wagon","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":23772439041,"sku":"The Welcome Wagon (3)","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1398\/5745\/files\/The_Welcome_Wagon_Precious_Remedies_Against_Satan_s_Devices_CD.jpg?v=1769887359"},{"product_id":"welcome-wagon-precious-remedies-vinyl","title":"Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices Vinyl LP","description":"Double Vinyl edition of Precious Remedies, the 2012 release from The Welcome Wagon.  Includes MP3 download code.   \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBonus!! In addition to including all songs from Precious Remedies, the Vinyl also includes all the songs from the EP, Purity Of Heart is to Will One Thing. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVINYL Details\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRelease Date: June 12, 2012\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRecord Label: Asthmatic Kitty\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUPC: 656605609218\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNumber of Discs: 2\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"The Welcome Wagon","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":23772439169,"sku":"The Welcome Wagon (4)","price":24.98,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1398\/5745\/files\/The_Welcome_Wagon_Precious_Remedies_Against_Satan_s_Devices_Vinyl_LP.png?v=1776010564"},{"product_id":"welcome-wagon-light-up-stairs","title":"Light Up The Stairs CD","description":"Light Up The Stairs is the 2017 Kickstarter-funded release from Brooklyn-based songwriting duo The Welcome Wagon. The album features a series of songs about the depth, difficulty, and joy of faith, hope, and love.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCD Details\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRelease Date: October 27, 2017\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRecord Label: Gospel Song Records \/ Tooth \u0026amp; Nail Records\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUPC: 810488022834\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNumber of Discs: 1\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"The Welcome Wagon","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42473380173,"sku":"The Welcome Wagon (5)","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1398\/5745\/files\/The_Welcome_Wagon_Light_Up_The_Stairs_CD.jpg?v=1769887477"},{"product_id":"welcome-wagon-light-up-stairs-vinyl","title":"Light Up the Stairs Vinyl LP","description":"Vinyl LP edition of Light Up The Stairs, the 2017 Kickstarter-funded release from Brooklyn-based songwriting duo The Welcome Wagon. The album features a series of songs about the depth, difficulty, and joy of faith, hope, and love.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVINYL Details\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRelease Date: October 20, 2017\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRecord Label: Tooth \u0026amp; Nail \/ Gospel Song Records\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUPC: 810488022841\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNumber of Discs: 1\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"The Welcome Wagon","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42418557255907,"sku":"The Welcome Wagon (6)","price":28.98,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1398\/5745\/products\/The_Welcome_Wagon_Light_Up_The_Stairs_Vinyl_LP.jpg?v=1776010479"},{"product_id":"welcome-wagon-esther-cd","title":"Esther CD","description":"Esther, the 2022 effort from Brooklyn duo Welcome Wagon is as much about homecoming as it is about making peace with-and a home in-uncertainty. The project had it's beginnings in the summer of 2017, when the family took a two-month sabbatical to California. In reflecting upon that time, Pastor Vito Aiuto says \"It felt like we had been changed, and so to go home was going to be alright.\" Shortly after returning to Brooklyn, he found himself holding his guitar and allowing his fingers to play a few notes that just felt... right. Then the pandemic hit, and Vito's strumming, lyrics, and thoughts became the soundtrack of the family's lockdown lives. Though Monique had given up painting a decade prior, she felt an urge to go home as well, to reconnect not just with an artistic identity but with her midwestern family. She began using pieces from a collection of her late grandmother Esther's treasures to create large-scale collages, beautiful, evocative, and almost haunting in their pastiche of the past. \"Using the music as a starting point, I wove together any object on hand that fit with the chords, the vision, the melody, the spirit of the songs,\" says Monique, whose paintings provide the album art. Esther was born out of this wellspring of creativity and homecoming, exploring the profound knowing and equally profound mystery in both family and faith. In Esther, the questioning is the destination, and it is one where peace can be found and home-and art-can be made. There's a salve there. There is music. There are moments of grace, large and small. 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The project had it's beginnings in the summer of 2017, when the family took a two-month sabbatical to California. In reflecting upon that time, Pastor Vito Aiuto says \"It felt like we had been changed, and so to go home was going to be alright.\" Shortly after returning to Brooklyn, he found himself holding his guitar and allowing his fingers to play a few notes that just felt... right. Then the pandemic hit, and Vito's strumming, lyrics, and thoughts became the soundtrack of the family's lockdown lives. Though Monique had given up painting a decade prior, she felt an urge to go home as well, to reconnect not just with an artistic identity but with her midwestern family. She began using pieces from a collection of her late grandmother Esther's treasures to create large-scale collages, beautiful, evocative, and almost haunting in their pastiche of the past. \"Using the music as a starting point, I wove together any object on hand that fit with the chords, the vision, the melody, the spirit of the songs,\" says Monique, whose paintings provide the album art. Esther was born out of this wellspring of creativity and homecoming, exploring the profound knowing and equally profound mystery in both family and faith. In Esther, the questioning is the destination, and it is one where peace can be found and home-and art-can be made. There's a salve there. There is music. There are moments of grace, large and small. 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