Second Stage: Chris Weisman & Greg Davis

by Robin Hilton

Download "Crystal Under Brattleboro" (right-click or ctrl-click and save to your computer)

NPR Music producer Lars Gotrich and I rarely share the same taste in music (check out one of his guest DJ stints on All Songs Considered). But I immediately fell in love with a new album he recently passed along to me called Northern Songs. It's a beautifully unpredictable collection of lo-fi, neo-psychedelic folk songs by Chris Weisman and Greg Davis, two songwriters from Vermont.

Northern Songs opens with a glitchy mix of shortwave radio static and something that could only be described as laser guns, before melting slowly to a gently strummed guitar and distant vocals. The rest of the album is very spare. Weisman and Davis mostly stick to a single guitar with two-part harmonies and maybe some simple bells or a synth line. It makes the mix feel a little rough around the edges, but warm and inviting.

This cut closes out the album. It's called "Crystal Under Brattleboro."

This album is available at the band's Web site.

Subscribe to the Second Stage podcast to automatically download each song to your computer.

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3:51 PM ET | 07- 7-2009 | permalink

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