Mother Coyote: “When The War Comes” (2025) CD Review

Mother Coyote is the new project of Andriana Lehr, a singer and songwriter who was born in South Dakota and now resides in Minnesota. She put out her first album, Try To Be True, in 2013, and followed it with Artifacts in 2016. When The War Comes is her first release under the name Mother Coyote. It is an EP featuring all original material. Joining the vocalist on this release are Andy Thompson on piano, keyboards, guitar, violin and backing vocals (Thompson also produced and mixed the recording); Dan Lawonn on guitar and cello; Ian Martin Allison on bass; Grady Kenevan on drums; Ken Chastain on percussion; and Jordan Katz on horns.

When The War Comes begins with its title track. That piano part at the very beginning reminds me of something from Randy Newman, and then the song soon establishes a dark and compelling atmosphere. Andriana Lehr’s vocal approach is intriguing, reaching down into some deeper areas with a strong sense of foreboding, and then rising with great beauty and spirit and passion and hope. “When the war comes let us mourn our loss/As we walk through smoke, the burning cross/Of a lie we loved, let us be absolved/We know not of all the lies we’re told.” Those lines are striking in these unsettling and dishonest days, aren’t they? This is a powerful number, one you’ll find yourself immersed in before long. Then the piano work at the beginning of “Eden” seems to reach us from a delicate past, from the shadows that can’t be held. Check out these opening lines: “It was a dance with delusion/I came to the conclusion/That I’d seen God/At least I thought.” Her voice is softer on those lines, but then after that first stanza, the song kicks in, and her voice gains in power. We are now firmly in the present, but it is a present of her creation. “And if it’s not real/Then give me the strength to go on again.” There are also some lyrics that are delivered as spoken word, as if by another voice, another person; “I was a living, breathing prayer.” There are incredible moments of power here. Toward the end, there is the repeated spoken line, “I want to live.”

Andriana Lehr’s voice seems to come from some other place, some other plane, and so a line like “Where the humans watched all their illusions come crumbling down” makes perfect sense. For here it is like she is another being looking in on the baffling activity of this sad species, and then so are we. But this is a very human number, a song of birth and death. And we are caught in the middle of it. This track features some gorgeous work on cello. And it builds into a powerful piece, as each of the songs on this disc does. This music grabs hold of us. The EP then concludes with “Great Unknown.” There is a breathy aspect to her delivery at the beginning of this one. “All the pain that’s been suppressed for years/Break the dam, release a flood of tears/It’s a long way home/But it’s closer than we’ve ever known.” There is a bit of an Aimee Mann vibe to this one, particularly on the lines “It’s a long way home/But it’s closer than we’ve ever known.” The song has something of a brighter pop vibe, and the horn adds to that positive sound. “And there’s no place left to go but home/Into the great unknown.”

CD Track List

1. When The War Comes
2. Eden
3. The Tower
4. Great Unknown

When The War Comes is scheduled to be released on February 11, 2025.