1) Taking their name from a Willard Grant Conspiracy song is always going to meet with our approval.

2) To see The August List then self-proclaim themselves as “backwards country porch-folk”, was also going to pique our interest that little bit more –  we love those country porch sing-a-longs.

3) And to have our friend Ronan at Nightshift compares them to The Handsome Family and the Carter-Cash partnership meant that we were definitely going to put this husband and wife duo’s debut EP Handsome Skin right to the top of our ‘must listen’ pile.

We’re glad we did.

Originally hailing from Dorset and now residing in our neck of the woods in a small barn perched on a hill in Oxfordshire, this self-released EP via their own Ubiquity Project Records is an absolute gem. Consisting of four tracks of perfectly judged Americana tinged with a dash of southern-gothic flavour, they are perfectly told campfire stories wrought from dying embers, and borne away on woodsmoke to drift and linger overhead.

Sometimes frantic, occasionally creepy and expertly switching between the uptempo, toe-tappin’ hoedown of Death Penalty and Bird House Song to the contemplative, languid melancholy of Homeland, this is an EP that enthrals and enchants in equal measure. We’re pretty confident this will appeal to anyone with a soft spot for Shovels & Rope, Roadside Graves, or even Wilco.

Head over to their Bandcamp page here to hear the whole EP.

Highly recommended.

.

.

Follow @madmackerel