Tucson's Silver Thread Trio must confess: The ladies love singing about heartbreak, death, despair.
Sure, there are a couple uptempo scorchers on their forthcoming sophomore album "Trigger & Scythe" - like the toe-tapping fiddles and the sweet echo of a banjo and snare drum on the coal-mining tale "Days of Night."
But listen to the lyrics: "I pray the Lord my soul to save / No man should have to dig his own grave / Miles of darkness / Days of night / Down so long I curse the light."
"We kind of like to mix the happy songs with some terrifying lyrics," says guitar player Laura Kepner-Adney. "Sad makes us happy."
The songs are made even starker with ethereal vocals and harmonies, sometimes haunting, sometimes reminiscent of a Sunday morning revival in a backroad church. There's some old-timey gospel, respectful and authentic, and soothing folk that masks country inclinations. Add steel pedal to the acoustic mix and you'd make a good argument for relabeling it neo-traditional country.
"Our roots are based really heavily in old-school American folk music and Americana in general," said Kepner-Adney, whose day jobs include bartending at the Rialto Theatre and making jewelry.
"Most of the songs deal with death and loss in some way. It's kind of this bittersweet trap that we've fallen into that we're very happy to be in. ... The kind of overarching sound of the album is still reminiscent of the alt-country-folk-Tucson genre," she said.
The band will celebrate the CD's release with a concert at Plush Saturday.
"Trigger & Scythe" was more than a year in the works, recorded at Waterworks Recording Studio in Tucson with the estimable recording engineer Jim Waters. The guest list of artists working with the trio - Kepner-Adney, Caroline Isaacs and Gabrielle Pietrangelo - included Calexico's Joey Burns, John Convertino and Paul Niehaus, and members of El Camino Royales.
"We have 12 guests playing with us. It's a much fuller sound," says Kepner-Adney. "It's kind of a departure from our first album in that the production levels are a lot higher ... and it's about 90 percent original songs."
Kepner-Adney said the trio was able to take its time with the record thanks to financial support through Kickstarter, which solicits funds for artistic endeavors online. Kepner-Adney said she and her bandmates had hoped to raise $3,000 with their Kickstarter campaign; they got nearly twice that, and used the money to pay for additional studio time.
"We were going for a more polished sound and slicker production, but not too slick," Kepner-Adney said. "And that's where Jim (Waters) comes in. He knew where all the lines were that we wanted to draw."
"Trigger & Scythe" is the long-anticipated follow-up to the trio's 2008 eponymous debut, recorded at Old Bisbee Records. Since then, the women have been featured in a number of high-profile Tucson performances, including the August 2011 Amos Lee concert at Fox Tucson Theatre, that was filmed live as part of the PBS show "Live From the Artists Den."
If you go
• What: Silver Thread Trio CD release, featuring Loveland and Ryanhood.
• When: 9 p.m. Saturday.
• Where: Plush, 340 E. Sixth St.
• Cost: $5 at the door.
• More information: www.silverthreadtrio.com
