Tall Hours In the Glowstream

Album Review

Michael Nau and Whitney McGraw's second post-Page France outing finds the Cumberland, MD duo adopting a more free-form, psychedelic foundation for their unique brand of indie Americana. 2009’s Paranoid Cocoon found the pair awash in a dreamy, coastal twilight, and while Tall Hours in the Glowstream continues to explore the world through that same reverb-drenched, Galaxie 500-esque haze, there’s a land-locked, Midwest sensibility that permeates standout cuts like “Somehow to Keep It Going”, with its “All Tomorrow’s Parties”-inspired floor tom and tambourine, and the Motown-meets-Porter Wagoner shimmy of opener “Sail of the Silver Morning.” It’s a solid, warm, and wonderful record through and through, though one that requires a heightened level of comfort with mid-tempo balladry — the offbeat, horn-driven instrumental “Goethe Nayburs” offers a brief respite. Like their Chicago contemporaries the Handsome Family, Cotton Jones feels a kinship to the country-folk tradition, but is not bound to it, and with each new collection of songs, they add another couple of lines to the genre's weathered face.