Woven Hollow Delivers a Meditation on Time

Woven Hollow is a folk duo from Carbondale, Colorado, that began making music in 2017, releasing their eponymous debut EP on Bandcamp in 2018 (material from which later showed up on Spotify). After five years without recorded output, the husband-and-wife duo of Van Wampler and Anna Murphy have released a new single, “Ten Feet Under.”

Combining the ethereal nature and folk sensibility of earlier tracks like “Ice Queen” and “Tell Me Nice,” the duo sounds somewhat like Aimee Mann nodding to The Civil Wars on their latest. “Ten Feet Under” opens with a slow, dirge-like drumbeat as Murphy sings a mournful melody that Wampler harmonizes to. At about a minute and 15 seconds in, the tune suddenly picks up the tempo a few notches for a chorus-like section as Murphy and Wampler sing, “We don’t have much time around.” As a lament on the passage of time and an inducement to make use of the time you have, the dichotomous, slow-fast structure works well.

For “Ten Feet Under,” the duo brought in Camille Backman and Kelly Thompson to fill out their sound on violin, banjo, and trumpet. Whereas on previous tunes, the duo seems to divide their time between keyboard-driven and acoustic songs, here one catches only the vague and mildly ominous presence of a keyboard. The song might have been better without it. But, in the very least, it doesn’t distract from what is a solid appearance near the end of 2025. After five years of silence, one hopes to hear more from this group.

Written by Christopher Raley