(Fat Possum Records, cassette, CD, digital, vinyl)
Recorded to tape in a Vermont barn over five days, What of Our Nature is the result of a yearlong exploration into the life and words of Woody Guthrie by Portland, Maine’s Max García Conover and Portland, Ore.’s Haley Heynderickx. Its 10 songs form a serious work that recounts and critiques the legacies of American colonialism, inequality and consumerism through loquacious, emotionally charged folk songs.
The critically acclaimed singer-songwriters first collaborated on the 2018 EP Among Horses III, confirming that their folkie natures could — and should — meld. Their laissez-faire vocal stylings produce dark, intuitive harmonies, complemented by a precision in fingerpicking. While Heynderickx and García Conover have long shared aesthetic affinities, What of Our Nature reveals a deeper alignment of political values.
Released in late November, the album laid bare the artists’ discontent with American consumerism just in time for holiday shopping sprees. On “Mr. Marketer,” Heynderickx coos somewhat clinically, “The market is crowded / they’ve started to yell,” before narrowing her gaze: “The artist is selling sad nudes of herself / saying, ‘I hope that this helps’ / ‘I can’t seem to tell.’” It’s an ominous waltz in which Heynderickx plays a disillusioned follower in the arms of faceless admen.
While Guthrie’s protest music confronts discrimination head-on, much of Heynderickx’s writing nods to its vestigial legacies. Consider “to each their dot,” a song that calls to mind the bubble sheet surveys sent by the U.S. Census Bureau to collect population data. In the chorus, Heynderickx recasts the album’s title as a soft indictment of hierarchical racial categories before acquiescing a response: “to each their color and to each their dot.” “Fluorescent Light,” however, sharpens its lyrical symbolism through a catchy melodic refrain, resulting in a hypnotic reverie of protest-adjacent pop. The album’s most commercial track, it also serves as the lead single.
The second single, “Boars,” carries the taut propulsion of a driver eyeing an almost empty fuel gauge. Here García Conover channels Guthrie’s pointed approach to protest music, and on “Cowboying,” he depicts an American psyche both afflicted and pacified by greed.
The two songwriters alternate tracks, producing an album that feels more assembled than sculpted. Despite its unevenness, What of Our Nature earns its weight as a tool for political education. García Conover’s “Buffalo, 1981” and “Song for Alicia” recount moments of political suppression in stark detail, from Ronald Reagan’s dismantling of the PATCO strike to the imprisonment of Armed Forces of National Liberation member Alicia Rodríguez. “Now the same parade’s been happening,” he sings on the former track. “We could’ve made protected classes of the masses of the poor.”
Throughout the album, a patchwork of politically attuned perspectives emerges — some of those views are rooted in recent history, while others are suffused with a sense of directionless unease blooming into full-on angst. Heynderickx and García Conover offer an atmospheric collection of protest songs steeped in present-day ennui — the feeling of being informed, disillusioned and present within a fractured society.
While their songs don’t speak truth to power in quite the same way as Guthrie’s, Heynderickx and García Conover articulate what it feels like to be here now. Catch them at Higher Ground Ballroom in South Burlington on April 8. What of Our Nature is available on all streaming platforms.
This article appears in The Wellness Issue • 2026.
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