There’s a circus in your mind. It’s the one you want to return to, a circus with women in red sparkle dresses, trapeze artists so capable they make it look first-nature, animals walking on giant globes. This scene is the sound of the new album by the Dustbowl Revival, Carry Me Home.

Though the band hails from Venice, CA, I was lucky enough to see them at Lucid Lounge in Seattle about two years ago. Since, I’ve kept in touch with the group and was happy to find out about their new release, which has already hit the KEXP airwaves. The 13-piece resembles a throwback jug band and imbues vibrant energy. Their songs are woven with upright bass, washboard, banjo, accordion, mandolin, harmonica and lightening-quick guitar leads. The band’s lead singer, Zachary Lupetin, has a twangy voice that, accompanied with the muted horn section, also offers a New Orleans-inspired air. The sum is a fun and dancey vibe that inspires shimmying shoulders and tapping feet. (Dangerous comparison alert! Think: Old Crow Medicine Show and Mumford & Sons.)

My favorite track on the band’s new release is “Riverboat Queen”, which features vocalist Caitlin Doyle, who sings, “Oh Daddy, I want you by my side. I just got to have you right by my side. And if I don’t get you, Daddy, I’m gonna lay right down and die.” The song is supremely catchy with a gang chorus bellowing, “Duh! De-duh-de-duh-de-duh!” between verses. A soaring clarinet accompaniment in the mix shoots like a raven through fiery hoops laid out by mandolin and trumpet.

Many of the songs on the album are traditional tunes, but with The Dustbowl Revival so much about their style is the performance. One feels an odd, yet comfortable sense of place when hearing washboards, kazoos and a swaying (perhaps booze-infused) horn section backing singers like Lupetin and Doyle.

The Dust Bowl reference recalls a period in the 30’s when crops dried up and people around America set off for lusher Californian promises. It makes sense then when you go to the band’s web site and see pictures of the 13-piece crammed into a car, instruments in tow. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then the picture the band paints in your mind with their music is worth much more.

The Dustbowl Revival plays Doug Fir in Portland August 22 and The Sunset Tavern in Seattle Aug 23.

–Jake Uitti, The Monarch Review