Dayton band Novena’s debut EP explores loss, friendship and hope

Novena released its first single, “Strip My Bark Away,” in March 2020, the darkest track in the repertoire. Sonically contrasting the band’s more upbeat songs, with its minor chords and Latin flavors, the song waxed about isolation, which felt appropriate for the moment we were entering. A few years later, Novena debuted the song “Feeling I’ve Never Felt,” adding a positive demeanor to the band’s then-catalog. That second single would land as the final track on the band’s first EP, “Our Unfailing Novena.”

Novena will be releasing the six-song EP at the Yellow Springs Porchfest on Sept. 20. The album is a culmination of grief, suicidal ideation, finding hope, healing, and friendship.

Opening with a classic country sound, à la Dolly Parton, with “Eventually,” the EP submits to the idea that even the most deeply heartbreaking songs can sound happy, just as human emotions can suppress under the surface. That dichotomy of positivity and sadness persists throughout the record. If listened to as a storyline, “Strip My Bark Away,” track three on the EP, acts as a Dark Night of the Soul to the redemption found in subsequent songs: “We Are Not Alone, “Live My Today,” and “Feeling I’ve Never Felt.”

“Eventually” introduces the difficulties Woodruff often sings about, but also shows that there is a parting of the clouds. (During live performances, she often explores her voice with vocal runs for the song’s finale, at the encouragement of her trusty bassist.) In that grand country music tradition, the song is upbeat but there is obviously some disarray abound. The songs on “Our Unfailing Novena” tell the story of her leaning on others and the healing they helped her traverse.

“Jen did save my life,” Emma said. “She befriended me at a very dark period of time. And so these songs are about my journey with friendships and trust, letting my guard down, my sobriety, moving on from losing my departed loved one, and really bonding with friends.”

“She was frightened and didn’t know who to trust. And that’s understandable when you feel like your world’s falling apart,” Jen said. “I couldn’t stand to see her go through that alone. Eventually she was able to pick up the pieces and put her life back together.”

Jen explains that a novena is an ancient tradition of devotional praying in Christianity. “Our unfailing prayer” is a specific type of prayer, often to Saint Anthony, in which the prayer asks for the saint’s intercession abilities. In the name “Our Unfailing Novena,” while the EP isn’t specifically a reference to the Christian faith, the word “prayer” is substituted for Novena to symbolize the prayer that’s specifically for a departed loved one.

Some of the songs could be considered requests for help from a friend, crying out for comfort, or, in some cases, being your own friend and your own comfort. But it proclaims knowing where your feet are, where you can stand tall, is progress.

On the EP’s cover is a sunflower, photographed by Jen Taylor at the Tecumseh Land Trust in Yellow Springs. The album’s jacket was designed by Joe Ouellette. With a sunflower being synonymous with happy, warm late-summer days, Taylor explained the use of the floral imagery for the album.

“Sunflowers stand strong,” she said. “They stand in their beauty and they look for nourishment. They look for help. They know that they’re not a singular, self-sustaining unit. The sunflower knows that it’s beautiful, but the sunflower recognizes that it needs the nourishment and comfort that it’s seeking from the sun.”

Knowing that Jen had a big hand in aiding Emma in her time of need, I asked what it means to be in a band with her, and releasing this debut EP, after the turbulence they’ve gone through together.

“It illustrates a chapter in our individual lives and our creative partnership,” Jen said. “For her to find healing and to go on living her human life… we’re all human, and we’re all learning and going through life and making mistakes as we go.”

Coming out of the darkness, “Feeling I’ve Never Felt” ends the EP on an uplifting note.

“The song does kind of share the story of Jen stepping into my life and listening to me talk about how I didn’t get to properly say goodbye to my departed loved one,” Emma said. “‘Feeling I’ve Never Felt’ is really a heartfelt song of appreciation, an ode to my lovely friend, Jennifer.”

Novena’s EP “Our Unfailing Novena” will be released on Magnaphone Records Sept. 20, digitally and on CD. It was produced at Reel Love Recording Company in Dayton.

HOW TO GO