Lost in the Trees

It’s tempting, when something is given the description of acoustic folk, to dismiss it as just a pretty throwaway, something to be reached for by orchestra kids when they want to seem hip or by Dylan-philes when they want to seem intellectual. Don’t do this in the case of Lost in the Trees: Sure enough, the Chapel Hill septet’s sound falls on the most lifting side of beautiful, a rag-tag mix strums, occasional electric riffs and an impeccable string trio, all executed with the patient maturity of a chamber ensemble. But, thanks in large part to the devastating songs of leader Ari Picker, LITT never find themselves saddled by gimmick.

Started when Picker was attending Boston’s Berklee School of Music in 2002, Lost in the Trees grew to become a loose collective of about a dozen people before narrowing to the tight seven it is now. They’re a close group, one that inhabits Picker’s very personal songs with feeling and fervor. All Alone in an Empty House, the sophomore LP the band re-released last year, revolves around the singer’s relationship with his family. His parents split up when he was very young after they lost the twin daughters that would have been his older sisters. His mother battled depression for the rest of her life before committing suicide.

In Picker’s songs, recollections of his broken home are conjured like ghosts, apparitions that take on new half-lives where exact details have faded. Still, the painful feelings howl at the end of every bad memory. As the band’s tight, explosive orchestrations wrap everything up in appropriately high drama, Picker broods and howls, reliving his demons each and every night. It’s here that Lost in the Trees becomes inspirational: Where many would be toppled by such a life, Picker and his players have compounded his memories into moving odes that find beauty and redemption in a painful story. These are tuneful reminders that even the worst circumstances can be overcome. —Jordan Lawrence