In mid-coast Maine, there is an intertwining of beauty and melancholy strong enough to stun any who travel through its tiny towns in the dead of winter. In places like Belfast, emptied of the summertime traveling public, there is a feeling of being pushed by the forest up against the enormity of the Atlantic Ocean. It is this emotional landscape that emerges from the words and music of Belfast, Maine’s native sons, Tree By Leaf. On the opening cut of their new CD—“of the black & the blue”—Siiri Soucy sings:

Everything that starts someday comes to screeching halts.
The slight of hand; the screen door slam;
a polygraph in the promised land.
You left me no choice but this— extended wrist . . . the judas kiss.
All things bright and glorious.
Join the melancholy chorus.

Siiri Soucy’s is a voice that rings as clear and bright as a deep winter’s morning, offset perfectly by the scruffy vocals of Garrett Soucy and the smooth Rhodes of Clifford Young. Fans of the Cowboy Junkies, the Jayhawks and Wilco would not be disappointed with this disc’s sounds. And while their music fits in nicely with those bands, Tree By Leaf shows an originality in the restraint of its arrangements and in its unpredictable song structures. These songs are strong, introspective, and could take on many stylistic shapes—from rock to country, and folk to indie—and it is to the band’s credit that they have forged a record that is haunting, spare, and cohesive.