NATHAN Unlike many alt-country bands, these rootsy ecumenists from Winnipeg get to the heart of rural North American music without hillbilly kitsch or weary references to the farm. Like that of their fellow Canadians The Be Good Tanyas (who are from Vancouver), Nathan's spooky rusticity relies on a combination of hushed vocals and lightly played banjo and guitar. To this, they add upright bass, sparse drums, pedal steel and accordion—the last of these being essential to the reels and shanties of Canada's east coast, upon which the band drew to make their current album, Jimson Weed. Tradition-based yet by no means retro, songs like "Bad Ideas" blend dark introspection with good-natured whimsy in a way that's emphatically modern. "I'm going down the highway with a suitcase full of all my bad ideas," sings principal songwriter Keri McTighe. "Going to check them out / See what I've been missing all these years." Indeed. —Paul V. Griffith

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