This is the first album from the Sacramento outfit Oh Lonesome Ana, who take inspiration from their beloved friend Johnny Allen and adapt his words to a deeply personal listen that addresses childhood trauma.

“The Dirt Road” opens the listen with dense guitar and expressive singing, before pretty vocal harmonies populate the slow burning hint of alt-country. “The Slow Death Of Lung Cancer” follows, and picks up the pace with breezy melodies and some playful guitar crunch alongside scrappy drumming that's meticulous.

The middle tracks offer the warm, even soothing, “I've Got Your Blood,” where the soulful backing vocals make for a cautious climate, while “I'm Glad You Got Out (But I Miss You)” recruits spirited organ before shifting into a jangly folk-rocker. “No Kind Of God,” one of the album's best, then gets quite rugged, but still retains much beauty as the lush landscape welcomes very articulate wordplay.

The title track arrives near the end, and is full of slow-burning intimacy that’s poetic and full of thoughtful indie-rock on the softer side of the spectrum, and “To Feel So Small (Hello Me, It’s Me Again)” exits with some firm bursts of alt-rock flavor sprinkled across the bare moments of sublime musicianship.

The band consists of Ashley Maiden (bass guitar, vocals), Evan Bailey (guitar, keyboards, percussion), Jacob Bradford (guitar) and Zach Peach (drums, percussion). Additionally, Rachael McElhiney (vocals), Graham Farrow Knibb (vocals) and Farrow and the Peach (handclaps) are in attendance too, and it makes for a very moving listen that, although often dark in subject matter, is also catchy, tuneful and very relatable.

An excellent starting point, it will be interesting to see what these creative, thoughtful Northern Californians come up with next.

Rating: B+

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