ARTIST · INDIE FOLK / ROCK

The Decemberists

Sea-shanty brass, accordion colour, and lyrics that read like novellas set to crisp arrangements.

Indie folk
Progressive folk

Updated 27 October 2026

Biography

The Decemberists treat history and fabulism as pop fuel, spinning tales of mariners, legionnaires, and soot-stained romance.

Colin Meloy’s vocabulary-heavy verses ride on Jenny Conlee’s keyboards and John Moen’s precise drumming.

College-radio faithful and NPR listeners alike found common ground in their melodic ambition.

High-quality streams separate accordion registers, acoustic fingerpicks, and horn stabs that dense mixes can obscure.

Colin Meloy, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, Nate Query, and John Moen make up the core lineup. Their early records, Castaways and Cutouts (2002) and Her Majesty the Decemberists (2003), established a taste for sea shanties, historical settings, and elaborate vocabulary. Picaresque (2005) included The Mariner’s Revenge Song, and The Crane Wife (2006) drew on a Japanese folk tale.

The Hazards of Love (2009) was a full rock opera, while The King Is Dead (2011), made with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck as a guest, went to number one on the US chart. Meloy has also written a series of children’s novels, Wildwood, illustrated by his wife, Carson Ellis.

Interesting facts about The Decemberists

01 American indie folk band formed in Portland, Oregon in 2000.
02 Albums such as Picaresque (2005) and The Crane Wife (2006) expanded their narrative orchestrations.
03 Primary songwriter and frontman Colin Meloy previously played in the band Tarkio.
04 The King Is Dead (2011) featured R.E.M.’s Peter Buck.
05 Colin Meloy wrote the Wildwood children’s novels with illustrator Carson Ellis.