The first thing that strikes you about the underlying indie twang of Portland's The Forty-First is that it doesn't detract from the immediacy of their pop energy. Where most other country-tinged bands make you want to lie down in the dumps, The Forty-First moves you to get up. Not only that, but their sonic and lyrical storytelling is inviting--they give you the feeling there's hope to be found, even under the darkest of skies. All this at the band's tender age of six months.

"I'm pretty fortunate to be playing with these guys, because they just take my simple chord patterns or whatever and develop them into these... I don't know... It's unbelievably different," says singer/guitarist Brandon Barnhill. He notes that for every added guitar flourish, hi-hat trick, and smooth bass line (courtesy of the guys: Brandon Stowe, Josh Gambrell, and Greg Wick, respectively) there's another dynamic for the audience to consider. The Forty-First imbue their songs with a strong sense of balance; their alternating melodies sit neatly with each other, never crowded or muddy. Perhaps their secret is in staying conscious of structure over style--an element which plagues other would-be woodsy outfits preoccupied with sounding authentic.

"We do want to have an undefined sound, and we dig that concept of not having to echo the same choruses again and again. Something like when folk and rock were merging in the mid-'60s," says Barnhill. "Like when Dylan went electric, that was something of a new era, wasn't it?" That Barnhill is aware of how a song can be built on a single steady part and still develop alongside a string of narrative, betrays a rare maturity.

"I really hate to make distinctions between the type of music anyone plays or listens to. I'm just bad at it, I think. And it's always going to be really up to the individual's response of the songs, isn't it?" asks Barnhill. "I mean, with how music has been progressing over the years, I know there'll be a song that someone might think is derivative, and that'll be a point of view. I'm just not ready to write it off, y'know?"

What I do know is that The Forty-First are writing good songs and moving forward with ears wide open.