CONRAD FORD: Marry the Unknown

It was during one of Seattle's rainiest summers in recent memory that the outlaws started to creep into Conrad Ford's country-tinged tales. They came by way of the real-life adventures of the band members and their families - mental health crises at a youth detention facility, running a weight room at a minimum security prison, tax evasion and imprisonment of a longtime friend. It didn't help that the IRS dodger was now sleeping in Andy McAllister's childhood bedroom. Or that McAllister - also a freelance film editor - was editing a death-row movie on a isolated farm on Bainbridge Island. It was during his morning ferry commute and afternoon farmyard roaming that McAllister began humming a majority of the songs found on Secret Army. But rather than turn on the reel-to-reel to begin recording the base tracks as a lone crooner (as he did on their debut release Don't You Miss Yourself), McAllister rallied his bandmates Jordan Walton (pedal steel, omnichord, banjo), April Sather (Wurlitzer, melodica, glockenspiel, accordion, trumpet) and percussionist Nathanael Butler to first put the skin and muscle into the skeleton songs as a unified bunch.

The resulting songs are a collection of stories detailing battles for hope and companionship. Woven from the perspectives of lone travelers, felons, family men and mountain climbers - their execution sways from folk-ish, Townes Van Sant-like ballads to the more fuller Flying Burrito Brothers-inspired, laid-back country rock. Once emerging from their makeshift recording studio - conveniently located underneath a motorcycle repair shop - they handed the reels over to producer/engineer Tucker Martine (The Decemberists/Laura Veirs/Jesse Sykes) to mix. Conrad Ford (named after big skies of western film director John Ford and the stark characters of cinematographer Conrad Hall) have released their second full-length Secret Army on Tarnished Records.