Boxharp

Boxharp make records best listened to on a porch swing with a cooler full of beer at arm's reach and not a damn thing to do for the rest of the day except drink and dream. Their spacious songs can stretch a few minutes into an entire afternoon, and the band plays like a covey of angels on valium, floating through the rafters of the old Ryman Theater. Long, languid steel-guitar notes hover in these songs like campfire smoke on a windless day, while the giddy hands of the drummer and keyboardist sometimes guide the music down a Tin Pan Alley turnout. Smooth as river rock, M.C. Taylor's voice knows precisely when to enter, rise, dip and fall to stretch a sentiment to full effect without unraveling its fiber. Lyrics sound like the ramblings of Townes Van Zandt after one too many tokes on the calumet. Though the American-Gothic-meets-abstract-expressionism instrumental segues sometimes distract, they also make the nostalgic potency of these songs all the more forceful. The collaborative effort of Taylor and Scott Solter, Boxharp also feature members of Court and Spark, Oranger, and 100 Watt Smile.