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The Horses Ha

Waterdrawn is only the second album in 10 years from Chicago-based The Horse's Ha. Why does it take them so long to make records? They're not inherently lazy people; Janet Bean has had a 25 year career of making records as half of alt-country originators Freakwater and as one third of Eleventh Dream Day, while James Elkington has spent the last few years as a guitarist in Jon Langford's Skull Orchard and drummer in Brokeback. He's also released an album of finger-style guitar duets with Nathan Salsburg -- Avos (Tompkins Square),and recorded and toured with Laetitia Sadier (Stereolab), in addition to other groups. The Horse's Ha's first record, Of The Cathmawr Yards (2009), was a blurring of English folk, jazz improvisation and haunting harmonies that featured Bean and Elkington's contrasting voices, the athletic rhythm section of Nick Macri and Charles Rumback on bass and drums, and the stellar-searching cello experiments of Fred Lonberg-Holm. However, for Waterdrawn, Bean and Elkington went back to their roots as a duo to make a stripped-down record built on the foundation of Bean's country-tinged voice and Elkington's folk-inspired guitar playing with a minimum of ornamentation. Drawing strength and influence from Shirley Collins' and Davy Graham's genre-defining album, New Routes, Folk Routes and Donovan's early endeavors, The Horse's Ha wrote a collection of songs about the sea and dreams of escape that harkens back to the British folk boom without replicating it and points the group in a new direction. Horse's Ha regulars' Lonberg-Holm and Macri made wonderful and buoyant contributions that keep Waterdrawn bobbing along, and reed and string contributions from Jacob Daneman and Skull Orchard's Jean Cook add color and texture, but the emphasis is on the irrefutable magic of voice and guitar, and how that can invite the listener into a different world.