The Old Ceremony

Four full-lengths in after last year’s Tender Age, The Old Ceremony keeps growing into its sound like a band much younger than this group of over-30 veterans. Now in their seventh year, and third as a solid quintet, The Old Ceremony builds its lushly layered sound around the songs of Django Haskins, the Florida-born guitarist and singer whose travels from China to New York City color narratives now also firmly embedded in their North Carolina milieu.

Originally intended as a jazz-and-chamber-pop outlet for Haskins after a stint in the power pop-happy International Orange, The Old Ceremony comprised a rotating cast around the guitarist and frontman until the quintet emerged as the vehicle of choice. The band became more efficient on stage and in the studio when Haskins, organist/ vibraphonist Mark Simonsen, violinist/ keyboardist Gabriele Pelli, bassist Matt Brandau and drummer Dan Hall settled comfortably into their roles. Still, there was enough experimentation to keep the band interested and evolving, as their two most recent—and diverse—releases reflected.

On 2009’s Walk on Thin Air, the quintet swathed Haskins’ melodies in textures of Hammond organ, vibraphone and distorted violin lines that swirled through thrumming beats and crunching barre chords. The drama came from a slow boil, one or two instruments accompanying Haskins until sneaky-strong crescendos took off on fully layered arrangements. Haskins’ narratives—attuned examinations of how to overcome the regrets accompanying middle age—add to the drama by not always providing the answers we seek.

The erudite songwriting drew inspiration from the band’s namesake—Leonard Cohen’s 1975 record, New Skin for the Old Ceremony—but had touchstones in everything from the Beatles and Van Morrison to the Replacements and Wilco. But with Tender Age, originally intended as two separate EPs, the band took a step back from their polished and intricate studio layers with songs that captured their stripped-down live sound. Some are tracks of bare-bones guitar, banjo, bass and brushed skins recorded live in Haskins’ living room; others peel back just a layer or two to put the focus on the music’s blues, folk and country roots. As all these scenarios reveal, though, this is a band built on the strongest and longest-lasting of all rock traditions: solid musicianship and even more solid song-craft. —John Schacht