As a child, Colin Meloy was a voracious reader of fantastical tales. Years later as the leader of the progressive rock-pop outfit the Decemberists, stories about ghosts and ordinary people with extraordinary powers became melodic songs.
"First-person confessionals didn't feel comfortable," says the band's visionary and lead singer, who studied English and creative writing in college before becoming a musician. "I wanted to eliminate some boundaries. I've always had an overactive imagination."
For the Decemberists' latest album - The Crane Wife, released in October - Meloy was inspired by an old Japanese folktale in which a crane is transformed into a woman who can weave a magical cloth, an item her husband wants to sell. But she can only produce it by mutilating herself. The story delves into how in marriage tenderness is sometimes supplanted by hard-hearted habit.
"I came across this book and loved the story," Meloy says. "There was a lot of depth to it, then I started working on songs. The album itself isn't based on the story. It kind of bookends the album."
He and his multi-instrumentalist band mates - Nate Query, John Moen, Jenny Conlee and Chris Funk- play Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia on Saturday night. For the performance, the group will flesh out its ambitious arrangements with backing from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. The show is one of five with different orchestras across the country.
Working with orchestration on this tour is, "pretty incredible ... pretty amazing and fun," Meloy says. "It feels extraordinary in every way."
The Crane Wife is not unlike previous Decemberists albums. The lyrics are dense and sprinkled with words ("solanum," "asteraceae," "fontanel") that will send listeners to a dictionary. But the band's compressed production and elegant arrangements, echoing influences of Steely Dan and Queens of the Stone Age, render such lyrical pretension bearable. Whereas the band's previous three albums were released by the indie company Kill Rock Stars, The Crane Wife is the group's first for a major label, Capitol Records.
Meloy says the experience of recording for a bigger company wasn't different. "In a sense, the album is the same record we would have made on an independent [label]," says the singer-songwriter, who last week was at his home in Portland, Ore. "But we pushed it further left to prove to some of our fans that we're still doing the same records we've always done."
Pushing the album more left means Meloy was daring with song structure. Among the CD's 10 tracks are two song cycles - "The Crane Wife, 1 & 2" and "The Crane Wife 3" - exceeding 10 minutes each. While those cuts were inspired by the Japanese folktale, elsewhere lyrics center on Civil War romances, gun-toting rapists and heinous murders. The covertly conventional themes of Meloy's songs are enlivened by whimsical instrumentation from his band mates, all of whom play multiple instruments including glockenspiel, bouzouki and hurdy-gurdy.
"I think I work best when dealing with structure," Meloy says. "It focuses you to think. Writing songs is like a puzzle. Songwriting is more of an intricate puzzle for me. ... In the band, we're kind of music scholars in a sense. We love all types of music. I think the band is an effort to create a music based out of our influences. It's all anchored by the eccentricity of the lyrics."
The Decemberists is more or less a vehicle for Meloy's imaginative songs. His side projects include a musical, and plans to release a live solo album are in the works. But the Decemberists is Meloy's first priority.
"It's kind of a democracy, but I act as a benevolent dictator," he says. "In the end, I end up saying 'yay' or 'nay.' In the end, it moves faster with one person making final decisions."
rashod.ollison@baltsun.com
See the Decemberists at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $40-$75 and are available through Ticketmaster by calling 410-547-SEAT or visiting ticketmaster.com.