Monarch

Listen to the whirling guitar riffs, pulsing harmonica shouts and virile vocals on ‘Little Bird’, the opening track of this group's sophomore album, and it will turn your attention towards Americana's northeastern corner, where Ghost of Paul Revere can easily sell out New Year's Eve shows in their native Portland, Maine. What travels nicely from live settings to this recording is the instant singalong energy and the infectious love of collective music-making. Brought to the fore by the clean, careful work of Portland-based record producer Jonathan Wyman, the group's vocalists and multi-instrumentalists Griffin Sherry and Max Davis add powerful, tasteful vocal harmonies to the emotionally credible and poetic lyrics, backed by bassist Sean McCarthy. The core trio's stories of love craved, held, lost and regretted are nicely enhanced in places by violin and cello. While sounding fresh and new, the Ghost of Paul Revere invoke sweet old memories of folk-rock from both sides of the Atlantic.