I like it when people I know do things that are ambitious, be it musically or in life generally. It makes me feel equal parts proud and super lazy. This album is a bizarre blend of country, rock, and spacey head trips that works because it falls into the vision they started out with. You don’t find many folk albums with guitars that slice right through songs, and the often Johnny and June-like vocals add a feeling of down home-ness that makes you feel all warm inside.

Lean Into The Wind is a pretty big leap forward over Miss Shevaughn & Yuma Wray‘s previous effort, which itself was pretty good. The songs are more complex but not overly so-they focus a lot on Miss Shevaughn’s vocals with good reason. She comes to the mic with a swagger she didn’t have last time out and goes for the gold on every note.

Timing is everything in life, and they couldn’t have picked a better time to release this record. The second song, “Election Year Blues,” fully captures the current state of american politics. Especially timely because of the Supreme Court ruling this week allowing the wealthy to make as many donations to as many politicians as they want (as long as they don’t give too much to one candidate-God forbid!).

It’s also well-timed because I don’t think there’s anything else like this out right now. For example, the song “Lone Star Souvenir” reminds me of something one might hear late at night at some exotic cabaret club. Peggy Lee meets Mazzy Starr in Paris if you will. It comes out of nowhere on the album, with nothing before or after matching what it sets out to do, but it still feels like it belongs here.

I won’t say anything else about the record. It’s for fans of music-all genres. It doesn’t fall into a category, rather taking the pieces that they love from each one and mixing them together to form something new. You can check it out for yourself on Spotify, or you can just pick it up for ten bucks (my recommendation). They’re also out touring the country right now, so you can hear it live and then decided to purchase it after the show!