Jus Post Bellum (Justice After War) are Geoffrey Wilson (lead vocals, guitar), Hannah Jensen (vocals), Zach Dunham (drums, percussion, vocals), and Daniel Bieber (bass, cello, vocals), and they are from Brooklyn, via Minnesota and upstate New York.
Oh July is their second record, and it is some of the freshest and most lovely folk music I’ve heard for a while.
Their sound is traditional, and American, and intended to evoke the period after the Civil War. What distinguishes them from a million bands with the same idea is that they incorporate elements of a kind of folk music not often heard in folk-pop – spirituals – and that their old-timey concept is leavened with a distinctly modern sensibility.
Exhibits A and B: Gimme That Gun and Call to My Jesus. The former is the first song on the record, and is spellbinding live. The latter comes in the middle, and pinned me to my chair the first time I heard it.
And then there is Measure of a Man, which drifts closer to “pop” than “folk”, and is my favorite, because of lines like I’m lost / I’m a wildfire burnin’/ I’m a voice in the Devil’s chorus / I’m a dog / I’m a sleepy morning / I’m love / and I’m coming without warning:
