Released today: Esther, by The Welcome Wagon

November 4th, 2022 , by

We’re so proud to announce that Esther, the newest album from The Welcome Wagon, is available today, November 4th, wherever you listen to music. Click here to start listening. 

You can also buy the CD or LP (in translucent pink vinyl) here. Also available are bundles that include a custom-screen printed tote (which you can buy for $15 here), a special hand-made cassette, and an archival quality 16″x24″ print of Monique’s artwork here.

Earlier this week, Monique and Vito and friends played a record release show – a “Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Record-Release Special!” – which you can watch here (or below). There’s special guests, grapes and cheez-it’s, Thanksgiving cake, gifts, music, and neighbors.

The album, Esther, is as much about homecoming as it is about making peace with—and a home in—uncertainty. “It became apparent to us that so many of these songs were about coming home, or leaving home, or reckoning with the homes we grew up in,” says Vito, “plus we wrote them in our home.” 

“Making a home in this world is one of the hardest and most beautiful things any of us ever do,” says Monique. “Our music helps us to do that—to make a home, together with our family and friends—and we hope that somehow our songs might help others to make a home wherever they are, too.”

Welcome Wagon release “Matthew 7:7,” new song and video from forthcoming album

October 12th, 2022 , by

With a new album due November 4th, The Welcome Wagon have just released a new song and music video: “Matthew 7:7,” available for viewing below, or listening here.

Directed by Alex and Aaron Craig, the video features Monique and Vito Aiuto in a church in Brooklyn. This is the second Welcome Wagon video by the Craig Brothers, who also directed “Would You Come and See Me In New York?” in 2012. (The new video features a cameo from that video – see if you can spot her!) 

As with the previous Welcome Wagon single, “Isaiah, California” (which you can hear here), Monique also created a painting to “Matthew 7:7.” 

Monique began to paint after a decade away from the easel while locked down with Vito and their son Isaiah in their Brooklyn home. In isolation, she realized she’d neglected the very thing that connects her to herself, to God, and those around her, her gift, her purpose, art. To return to her creative practice, Monique recalled the sun drenched studios of The Cooper Union, where she attended from 1992 – 1996. Paintbrush in hand, she would listen to the muffled crackle of Psalms on tape cassettes home-recorded by her grandmother Esther. These recordings and paintings form the heart of this new album. 

“Vito gave me the beautiful green Bible whose cover is in this work. He said, ‘Maybe you could use it in one of your paintings, maybe you could cut it up?’ I think God would appreciate that. There’s something about people being delighted by their own creativity that God really digs,” says Monique about the painting.Pre-orders for the album (translucent pink vinyl LP!) are here. Also available at that link are bundles, including a custom-screen printed tote, tickets to a very special Welcome Wagon release party livestream, a special hand-made cassette, and an archival quality 16″x24″ print of Monique’s artwork. 

Best Practices for Trying, with The Welcome Wagon

September 20th, 2012 , by

Sometimes things don’t work out the way you planned. And if you’re someone like Vito or Monique Auito of The Welcome Wagon, that’s a good thing.

Read the Rest...

Precious Remedies For Everyone; New Welcome Wagon Out Now

June 13th, 2012 , by

Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, the Welcome Wagon’s second album, is out today! The follow-up full length to their 2008 debut, Presbyterian minister Vito Aiuto and his wife Monique present a brand new collection of folk-infused gospel gems.

Precious Remedies was recorded over the course of a work week in an old Brooklyn rectory. The tracks were produced by Alexander Foote and feature musical contributions from friends, including Foote and Sufjan Stevens. Spanning from sweet to transcendent, the record is the perfect summer soundtrack for lazy afternoons and back porch gatherings.

Above is a fantastically filmed video of a rehearsal of “Remedy,” a David Crowder cover. Friends of the Welcome Wagon Alex and Aaron Craig do the honors.

You can help yourself to some Precious Remedies on CD, LP, or MP3 by clicking here.

WELCOME WAGON RELEASE SHOW TUESDAY

June 4th, 2012 , by

The Welcome Wagon are holding a release party tomorrow night at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, and Andrew Rose Gregory and his Color Red Band will open. You should go! Admission is $15.

NEW WELCOME WAGON UP FOR PREORDER, EP FOR FREE VIA NOISETRADE, RELEASE SHOW

May 21st, 2012 , by

All those months you’ve been patiently waiting, biding time cleaning out closets, sorting book spines by color, and shining your shoes, are about to come to an end. The Welcome Wagon’s latest full-length, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, will be ready for ears everywhere in a few short weeks.

We officially release the Welcome Wagon’s new album June 12, and we’re taking pre-orders now. To reserve a copy on CD or LP, click here.

To prep for the release, The Welcome Wagon decided to set their last EP, Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing, free on Noisetrade.  Get the EP here, or see below.

THIS JUST IN: Record release party in Brooklyn on June 5th at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Brooklyn at 7pm! Beautiful poster design by  Brian Jones here.

A WELCOME REMEDY FROM THE WELCOME WAGON

March 23rd, 2012 , by

It is March, in the two-thousand-and-twelfth Year of Our Lord. The economy is still in the tank, our gas tanks are emptier,  jobs scarcer still than gas, and don’t even ask about health care.  White House hopefuls are bickering and backbiting like there is no year after this.  

We are sick and tired of it all. Heck, we’re just sick and tired, period.

We need some good medicine. Something a lot like Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices from The Welcome Wagon.

Not the 17th century Puritan classic by Thomas Brooks that you’re thinking of – though that book’s a fine place to start – but the new album of the same name by The Welcome Wagon, the musical duo of Vito and Monique Aiuto, a Presbyterian pastor and his wife.

The 13 tracks on Precious Remedies, which we’ll have the honor of releasing come June 12th, provide a much-needed healing balm, very much like the one Brooks describes in the preface to his old devotional: “A special salve for every spiritual sore, a special remedy against every spiritual malady…Food to nourish you, a staff to support you, a guide to lead you, a fire to warm you, and springs of life to cheer and refresh you.”


We’ll have a way for you to join The Welcome Wagon in a few weeks. For now you can get a head start by signing up for their mailing list on their website, watching the first single and debut video  on Relevant Magazine here, or listening and downloading the song below. More info on the release is here.

SHHH! WELCOME WAGON PERFORMING NEW SONGS AT SECRET SHOW

August 10th, 2011 , by

Photo by Josh Franer

AK artists have been busy travelers this year, touring hither thither like army ants on a picnic table. And occasionally a show comes along that feels like an all-you-can-eat banquet buffet. Welcome Wagon is playing such a show on Thursday night, at Pete's Candy Store, in a rare performance that looks to be as intimate as it will be generous.

Why the hoo-daw? Welcome Wagon rarely play shows to begin with. But we also have reason to believe this event will feature a full choir, including none other than the Gregory Brothers (of Auto-Tune The News fame). Eldest brother Andrew Gregory and The Color Red Band will follow the Wagon, featuring some delicate and beautiful songs from his successfully Kickstarted The Song of Songs project.

If that weren't enough, we are told by reliable sources in the CIA that Welcome Wagon will be playing new songs from a new, as of-yet-unannounced album.

The show is at Pete's Candy Store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC Thursday August 11th. Doors are at 7pm. It's free.

WELCOME WAGON TO MINI-TOUR MIDWEST

March 20th, 2011 , by

The Welcome Wagon, consisting of Rev. T. Vito and Monique Aiuto, do play shows rather regularly and they are quite good. But, as life often does, the rigors of their chosen professions (Reverend, Stay-At-Home-Parent, respectively) often anchor them to their home camp in Brooklyn. 

But. Once in a while, when the season is right, and they look toward the sky and feel the pull of the wind and the push of the sea, The Welcome Wagon ventures out, onward, and westward from their abode in Kings County. The equinox is soon. They will venture out again and begin the short and significant journey from Charlottesville, to Louisville, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Chicago, and then finish in Lancaster. Touring with them for a few of the shows is none other than Liz Janes, still fresh from her success of Say Goodbye and the recent release of Time & Space. It will be a good time for all involved. See details here.

NEW EP FROM WELCOME WAGON TO BENEFIT FREESET

December 22nd, 2009 , by

As you well know, most album recordings often produce songs that don’t always fit into the framework of the record. This happened to The Welcome Wagon, especially since the process took nearly seven years in between the free moments of raising a family. For most bands, the best of these songs created during this process end up on an EP.

Before the completion of their debut album Welcome to the Welcome Wagon, Vito and Monqiue  learned of Freeset, a fair-trade business in India that helps women escape the sex trade in Kolkata. By providing women with the opportunity to start new lives, regain dignity in their communities, and begin a journey towards healing and wholeness, Freeset seeks to break the cycle of poverty and exploitation for these women once and for all.
So, The Welcome Wagon married these additional songs to their desire to help the brave women Freeset helps. The result is the EP Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing. One hundred percent of the proceeds will go to Freeset.
The four song EP includes an early demo of “Up On a Mountain,” recorded around a kitchen table with Sufjan Stevens and Vito playing guitars, as well as the first song Vito ever wrote – the very good “There is a Fountain Filled With Blood.” To buy the EP, exclusively from iTunes for $3.96, click here.
To read more about the EP, go here. You can visit Freeset Global here.
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