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John Doe and Billy Zoom keep things spare and powerful, with two basses and a single guitarā€“and 47 years of shared musical historyā€“between them, as founding members of this historic American band.

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The Decemberists formed in Portland, Oregon, in 2000, and with their latest, have released nine full-length studio albums.

Photo by Holly Andres

On their ninth studio full-length, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again, the folk quintet expands on the landscape theyā€™ve been weaving together for the past 20-plus years, and dip their feet back into prog territory.

Decemberists frontman Colin Meloyā€™s keening, reedy, distinctively traditional-Irish singing voice has always seemed to me like a tiny rebellion against the homogenizing effects of globalization on music. Over the past 75 years, the imitation of American pop and rock has spread like a pandemicā€”making the indelibility of Meloyā€™s Irish heritage on his sound a refreshing presence in modern U.S.-based indie folk. That, paired with the singer/songwriter/guitaristā€™s penchant for both novelistic and classic-prog-inspired storytelling, has kept the music of the Decemberists evergreen over the past two decades.

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Rig Rundown: Tyler Childers & the Food Stamps' CJ Cain, Jesse Wells, James Barker & Craig Burletic

These barnstorming bandmates are multi-instrumentalists who parade out a music store's worth of gear that provides all the twanginā€™, cryinā€™, moaninā€™, howlinā€™, and note-bendinā€™ thatā€™ll get you two-steppinā€™ or dropping a tear in your beer.

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