Having met at Leicester Music College in 1998 and formed early last year, The Havenots are Sophia Marshall and Liam Dullingham, two young pups (20 and 22) whose smoke-weary delivery belies their tender years. Informed by Gram/Emmylou, Gillian Welch/David Rawlings and Uncle Tupelo, this is gentle smoulder for the most part, all languid, punt-down-the-river melodies and mountain-air acoustic guitars (courtesy of Samuel Harvey). The tunes may need work to snag in the memory, but the voices are spectacular: Dullingham’s lazy drawl already likened to “Ryan Adams on smack”; Marshall’s classically-trained larynx somewhere between Emmylou and Hope Sandoval. Heartening stuff.
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