A Tear In the Eye Is a Wound In the Heart

For Black Prairie's second album, the five-piece (which features three members of The Decemberists) puts singer Annalisa Tornfelt upfront, transforming the group from the largely instrumental band of its debut album, Feast of the Hunter's Moon, into a quintet that does it all. Instrumentals such as "For the Love of John Hartford," "Dirty River Stomp," and "Evil Leaves" maintain their rustic appeal, ranging from bluegrass to Eastern European folk. Tornfelt, however, extends Black Prairie's folk appeal back to its gospel reaches with the monumental "Rock of Ages" and pays tribute to one of Americana's most-missed practitioners with "Richard Manuel." Chris Funk's dobro, Jenny Conlee's accordion, and Tornfelt's fiddle lend the group a rootsy appeal. Yet "Nowhere, Massachusetts" rhythmically flows as smoothly as the Southern California edition of Fleetwood Mac, while "Lay Me Down in Tennessee," "Winter Wind," and "Little Song Bird" evoke the feel of the Appalachian mountains and their timeless appeal.