On their 2012 debut
Over and Around the Clove, upstate New York songwriting team Anne Cunningham and David Lerner, collectively known as
Trummors, wove an impressive set of low-lit folk tunes with more than a few nods to traditional country by way of pedal steel and the occasional honky tonk rave-up. The album, while immensely engaging and warm, still had a strangely sequestered feeling, like the songs were written, performed, and recorded mostly in moments of reflection and isolation. Second album
Moorish Highway retains the organic warmth and country-tinged songwriting strengths of the debut while opening up the sound on both larger-band arrangements and a distinctly more vivid approach to its stripped-down numbers. Many of
Trummors' tunes are built around Cunningham's floating harmonium drones, and the album begins with just such a drone and soft vocal harmonies on the late-night ballad "Vigil." Here, as with songs like "Autumn Gold" and "Pessimistic Bluebird,"
Trummors continue their interesting hybrid of U.K. folk influences meeting with the driftier side of mid-'70s American singer/songwriter fare. This influence is proudly worn on the sleeve in the form of a stunning (and reverent) cover of
Gordon Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain." Alongside the more subdued moments of the album,
Moorish Highway takes flight when the band branches out into more excitable new territory. Backing players such as
Vetiver's Otto Hauser on drums and masterful guitarist
Kevin Barker fill out the sound on a number of these more arranged tunes, helping to expand the album's scope and definition. "Bogus Bruce" re-imagines the rolling two-chord rhythm of
Belle and Sebastian's "Boy with the Arab Strap" as it might sound if performed by
Canned Heat. "Strangers from Now On" brims over with 12-string guitar, handclaps, and lilting harmonies right out of an early
Hollies song, while the gooey groove of the title track sparkles with the same introspective psychedelia of
Beck's jammiest
Sea Change tracks. Without ever reaching too far,
Trummors cover a wide range of ideas and impulses on
Moorish Highway, ultimately stepping up their sound and landing in increasingly exciting places as the album spins on. ~ Fred Thomas