Trampled By Turtles have developed a bracing hybrid of classic songwriting, bluegrass and folk – it’s North Country & Mid-Western Blue-collar ’grass with a fistful of gunpowder. Their style is permeated by a poignant, seductive desolation that calls to mind contemporaries Avett Brothers and Blitzen Trapper.

Produced by lead singer, guitarist and primary songwriter Dave Simonett, Palomino leads off with a pair of plaintive, up-tempo ballads. “Wait So Long” offers gorgeous, high lonesome harmonies by bassist Tim Saxhaug and banjoist Dave Carroll, as well as a video seen by nearly 700,000 youtube viewers.

The album accelerates with the neck-snapping certainty on the rhythmic, pedal-to-the-metal showcase “It’s A War” before drawing back again into the easy sway and gentle harmonies of “Separate.” “Help You” is a sun-dappled mountain stream of a tune, a fast-moving sparkler far removed from modern techno-paralysis. “Gasoline” is raw blues gone acoustic, with a dirty vocal sound and a Depression-era feel.