Horse Feathers: Justin Ringle (vocals, guitar, trumpet, piano, percussion); Peter Broderick (vocals, electric guitar, lap steel guitar, banjo, autoharp, mandolin, violin, viola, piano, percussion, musical saw); Heather Broderick (vocals, cello, percussion).

Audio Mixers: Justin Ringle; Skyler Norwood.

Recording information: Miracle Lake Studios, Tamas, WA.

Portland Americana group Horse Feathers selected the perfect photo to cover their album A HOUSE WITH NO HOME. The snow-topped shack in a wooded clearing could be the building in which these austere songs were written and rehearsed. The hushed mood and gentle performances come off like Elliott Smith raised in the country, and bluegrass-tinted, fiddle-laden songs like "Working Poor" and "Helen" exude the same kind of loneliness as the late indie-folk martyr. The recording is appropriately naked, giving the songs the natural, lived-in feel of something played by actual people in a room instead of in a high-tech studio.

The cover of House with No Home, the second full-length album from Horse Feathers, a dusty west coast folk duo comprised of Justin Ringle and Peter Broderick, depicts a wintry farm dusted with snow. It's an image that's easily conjured throughout each of the 11 songs that make up Home, a subtle, nuanced, and quietly noble collection of Americana-kissed alternative folk that echoes the work of Bonnie "Prince" Billy, James Yorkston, Iron & Wine, and Bon Iver. Ringle, who blends Richard Buckner's soft, serpentine delivery with Andrew Bird's "I can't open my mouth all the way" mumble populates his songs with the kind of woodsy, heart and soul-broken characters that one would expect to find lurking between the pines on a frosty Oregon morning in February, but it's Broderick ( a member of fellow Portland folk outfit Norfolk & Western) who provides the chill. His string arrangements are grandiose in their simplicity and busy without ever interfering with Ringle's poignant, icy prose. From the heady opener "Curs in the Weeds" to the surging, banjo-led "Working Poor," the two carve up each track like master craftsman, finding the perfect middle ground between the sparse, reverb-laden landscapes of the Great Lake Swimmers and the orchestral, aching beauty of Hem. ~ James Christopher Monger