Each half of this Canadian duo brought an estimable reputation to a partnership kindled at a Winnipeg festival: banjo player Cara Luft was a co-founder of the Wailin’ Jennys, JD Edwards a guitar-playing singer-songwriter. Together they deliver a mix of visceral bluegrass vocal harmonies and skilled playing, a sound that conjures up North American prairieland. Traditional in form, the songs are mostly originals, varying in mood from Luft’s tender Something to Hold Onto to the plain misery of Edwards’s Old Garage. The pair turn the Guthrie/Bragg tune Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key into a rolling singalong and finish with a suitably raw take version of the antique title cut. Adept and enjoyable.
