Decemberists Push The Envelope On 'Crane Wife'

It's sad that articles like this lump all the Pacific NW bands together...someone might mistakenly believe they're from Seattle when they really hail from Portland. Tragic really. Doesn't help the fact that they collaberate with much of the Seattle area talent. Just hurts the hometown pride a little that's all. Still happy for them, though. And from all appearances, they're staying on artistic track with the new album, "Crane Wife".

From the article,

A poor man finds a wounded crane in the woods and nurses it until it is able to fly away on its own. A few days later, a woman shows up at his door, they fall in love and get married. As they're poor, the wife suggests that the poor man sell a special cloth that she weaves in the nearby town, on the condition that he not look in the room while she's making it. Ultimately, the man's curiosity and greed overtakes him and he peers in the room only to discover his wife is a crane and she plucks out her own feathers to infuse into the cloth. She sees that he sees and she flies away.