Ivy Merrell of The True Wheel; photo by David Meadows.

The True Wheel is a poetry band from Boise, Idaho. In 2012, Doug Martsch (Built to Spill singer and guitar player) and Karena Youtz (poet) formed The True Wheel (named after a Brian Eno song) in response to a request from friends to perform together. Although we have written songs together for years, we had never been on a stage together. For our first performance, of three or four total, we created the basis for this piece of recorded music. Each time we performed we wrote completely different songs for different poems; the other True Wheel songs disappeared into ether the moment they were played. On this long, nameless track, a dream rhythm section agreed to record with us: Ivy Merrell on bass and Dan Kerr on drums. Ivy Merrell is a Boise musician. She plays and sings in the bands Dark Swallows, Get Wet +, and Mostly Muff. Dan Kerr is also a Boise musician. Doug produced, engineered, and played guitars and omnichord on the recording. Karena wrote and recited the poems as well as playing one guitar part and helping produce. All poems appear in the book The Transfer Tree from 1913 Press. Benjamin Cleo Youtz gave the poetry band the best gift by playing cello.