As I sit here starting to write this review, I Â realize it”s somewhat appropriate that tonight is Halloween, when costumed children pretend to be someone they wish they could be and costumed adults pretend to be someone (or something) they don”t want to be. Â The latest record from Detroit-based Lac La Belle, A Friend Too Long, has a bit of that costume magic about it.
Consisting primarily of multi-instrumentalists and vocalists Jennie Knaggs and Nick Schillace, Lac La Belle is plumbing some of the darker depths of Americana on this album.  Jennie”s voice carries an etherealness to it that reminds you a bit of 70″s pop folk, with an uplifting spirit that belies the underlying issue, like loving a murderous outlaw in Shadows Of A Dream.  Or on Breezy Sunday, where the vocals and a light-hearted whistling  put a gloss on a song that could just as easily been a companion piece to the Decemberists” Shankhill Butchers.
Meanwhile Nick”s vocals are more plaintive, bordering a couple of places on sheer despair. Â In Carry Me Under, the instrumentals are snapping right along, but it carries his observation (and one of the best lines I”ve heard in a while) that, “if you can”t take the hunger, stay away from the online casino bone.” Â My favorite song on the disc is Spoils Like Venom, a not-so-pleasant trip across the country hopping trains. Â It opens with a really uneasy feeling created by violin and cello, and from there haunts your consciousness about what really happened, and why.
 If you liked Jason Isbell”s Southeastern last year, I really suggest you give A Friend Too Long a listen.  It doesn”t quite have the raw-wound-open-to-the-salt-air character that Isbell”s exploration of his personal demons did.  But these are stories about people flawed or discouraged and when combined with the musicianship of Lac La Belle, there”s a lot of meat on this bone.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.