It’s a grey; foggy Sunday afternoon as I work on my second cup of decaf at the kitchen table listening to There is a Vine (LongAgoLight), the new record from Tree by Leaf. It’s on the last track and I’ll need to pop up and start it over momentarily because I am digging it bigtime. It’s hard not to, Tree by Leaf are a consistently fantastic band. Meanwhile, Demi-Tasse, the 3 ½ pound Yorkie I’m dogsitting for is passed out by my feet on her fleece square. She doesn’t hear, or for that matter, see particularly well but I get the sense she’s digging this record too. Tree by Leaf have just released their fifth record; There is a Vine (LongAgoLight) and will be having two release shows this weekend. Friday night they’ll be at The Rockport Opera House and then on Saturday night you can see them here in Portland at The Dogfish Bar and Grille. There is a Vine encapsulates everything that is so divine about this band. About 30 seconds into the opening track “Over and Over” I knew I was hooked. Between the vocals and guitar of Garrett Soucy, and the scintillating back-up vocals of Siiri Soucy, not to mention Garrett’s sage like lyrics, it’s ridiculous how good this band is. I mean business, people. Track 2, “Chicago at Night” was written by Garrett’s sister Erica and is driven by Siiri on lead vocals and her voice reminds me of everything I love about oh I don’t know, say Mazzy Star, over the course of three minutes and twenty two seconds of musical bliss. “I like Chicago at night when the taxi lights are shining, so if I change my mind, I can catch my mind, I can catch a ride back into hiding.” Each track slips into the next and I’m drawn further and further into the abyss of Tree by Leaf; one that whirls around in alt. country, folk, Americana, and even an essence of gospel, at least to my ears. I could write about this record for days as each song winds its way up my headphone wires. “Fraud” is another one that Siiri takes lead on and her voice along with what I think is a dobro and a ukulele is nothing less than enchanting. Then Garrett jumps on lead vocals again with “Come on Babe,” the gutsy surrender of a love song, complete with just the right amount of harmonica from Garrett, the enchanting keyboards of Cliff Young and the inspired percussion from Eric Sanders. I’ve barely had a moment to recover when Siiri starts in again with “Little Lost and Lonely.” “It’s better to forget than live with regret,” she sings, her voice illuminating Garrett’s words. During a song like this, there is no tense but the present and for about five minutes, there is no place I’d rather be than on this couch on a Monday night, with the lights turned down low and this fervent offering of perfection. Here’s the thing, I want to write about every single song on this record but I’ve got a bunch of other shows to get to so I’ll just pick one more lyric to leave you with. I’m slayed by this record and have had many certifiable “moments” over the past few days listening to it and I just wanna shake you all and tell you to catch one of their shows and more importantly, pick up a copy of There is a Vine. I skip to the song, “Believe it.” “Believe it. It’s not your vision; it’s the season. I keep on reaching but the ceiling just keeps on teasing.” P.S. Head to www.treebyleaf.org

With 2005’s Of the Black and Blue, Tree by Leaf went from an interesting folk trio living somewhere Downeast to one of the most respected groups of talent in New England, with a following that began to span continents. The husband-and-wife vocals of Garrett and Siiri Soucy created an ethereal dreamland that alternatingly wrapped you in a warm embrace and forced you frigidly into a cold and driving rain, leaving the listener emotionally drained, but, like a drunk, willing to risk the hangover to go back for more. Part of that came from a grander ambition, a willingness to go beyond the folked-up strummings of Letters to Rome into indie rock and alt-country without ever abandoning the thrill of melody. Now, on There is a Vine, released next weekend with shows in Rockland and Portland, the band have returned to the religious introspection of Rome while edging even farther from their comfort zone with an aggression you haven’t heard before from Tree by Leaf. It may not deliver as many warm fuzzies as Black and Blue, but it’s more challenging and thought-provoking, and it retains all of that album’s literacy and wit. Garrett writes all but one of the new songs, and it’s safe to say he’s one of the best lyricists working today. He creates couplets you’re shocked you’ve never heard before (“It’s better to forget than to live with regret”) while dropping the sublime almost effortlessly (“Now he wishes her well, may she live long and prosper/And his is a glow, now, like Madonna’s penumbra”). Couple that with his heart-felt delivery, enough to get you worried for the veins popping out of his neck, and it’s nearly impossible not to be sucked into his tales of existential deliberation. Nearly every song here deals with humanity’s relationship to God. Right from the album’s outset, the rollicking piano and raucous drums of “Over and Under,” Garrett wonders, “what is delusion?/What is devotion?” And these are questions to which he won’t offer easy answers, just interesting ways to say, “let’s talk about it,” like, “On the end of my cigarette, I’m gonna build a fire/And then we can burn this language down through the telephone wires.” One thing they know for sure about God? He’s better than George Bush and those who would claim God for their side, and so “His Banner Over Us Is Love” is one of the better protest songs you’ll hear this year. Over a manically strummed acoustic guitar, Garrett declares himself no patriot because he knows “a king whose flag is true, and his spectrum holds no red or blue.” This isn’t to say, however, that Tree by Leaf have abandoned the love song. “Come on, Babe” delivers again on the promise held out by the sensational “Rupert Sheldrake’s Girl” from last year. With its piano and roadhouse drums, some harmonica and simple bass, it feels, as with much of the album, like a song built for an out-of-the-way bar where a few couples dance with beers behind each other’s back, and the bartender isn’t disappointed if only 15 people walk through the door all night because he knows every one of them by name and hopes he doesn’t have to drive them all home at the end of the night. “Come on babe and call my bluff,” Garrett sings, just as desperate as he needs to be, “I’m ready to come home/Punch out the numbers and dial me up/I’m waiting by the phone/This is not the Enlightenment babe, this is resting just above/This is not the Romance babe/this is the renaissance of our love.” Okay, so the whole artistic-eras thing looks a little cheesy in print. Trust me, it sounds pretty damn great. And I think you’ll be won over later by the Sampson reference, too. This song also features an interesting mix, with the acoustic guitar strum way to the bottom behind a piano break from Cliff Young, the trio’s third leg and rock-solid throughout. The guitar is just a little ahead of the beat, though, quickening the heart for the otherwise restrained piano. It’s good work from Bruce Boege, of Northport’s Limin Studios, but there are other places, particularly on “Over and Under,” where the instruments are muddy. Of all the good choices he makes, keeping Garrett and Siiri well to the fore is generally among them. Siiri, who wrote a few of the songs last album, does get room to shine here. Her first bit is the slow and sedate “Chicago at Night” (written by yet another Soucy, Erica, Garrett’s sister, who plays solo and with Jet Black Dress), where she seduces like a siren over slide guitar and well-placed snare hits. Later, she delivers her most aggressive take yet, on “Little Lost and Lonely” moving from Norah Jones to something close to Mariah Carey by the song’s crescendoing finish. For denouement, Siiri dials it back, paired with a harmonica, to demure, “it’s only me/Little lost and lonely.” Sorry, but that’s not going to work anymore. Tree by Leaf are a standout talent and they very much carried expectations into this album. That they delivered without playing it safe should make everyone that much more eager for their next effort.