Never underestimate the power of vibe. You need strong songs, strong performances, and complementary production, of course—but the vibe has to be there, too, for it all to work.

Nowhere, NW, the debut album from Mountain Of Youth—the recording moniker of singer-songwriter Hunter Morris—has vibe for days. Athens, Georgia native Morris’ sound is Southern indie rock in the American Aquarium / Drive-By Truckers vein, with flavorings of ’70s folk-rock lyricism and ’90s grungy brio mixed in with a potent base of singer-songwriter sincerity.

What makes all of these influences jell so well, though, is vibe. There is no artifice here, no compromises made for the sake of airplay, just a guy who spends most of his days running a North Georgia fly-fishing operation sitting down with his guitar in front of a mic and making music from his heart. With sterling support from producer/multi-instrumentalist Ben Hackett (Patterson Hood, Craig Finn) and a faithful crew of players behind him, Morris sounds relaxed, confident and in the groove through every note of Nowhere, NW, never pressing or rushing or posing—never doing anything but inhabiting each song in the most natural way imaginable.

Kickoff cut “Automatic Days” establishes the vibe instantly with a memorable whistled hook over propulsive acoustic-bass-drums accompaniment. This engaging folk-rock anthem frames Morris’ approachable voice beautifully as he sketches out a Southern gothic story song about a small-town marriage foundering in the doldrums of middle age. Big electric guitars enter halfway through to add muscle to this smartly crafted yet organic feeling introduction.

“Everything Falls Apart” flips the coin to the other side, a shambling lo-fi tune about the material and spiritual decay eating away behind the smiling façade of suburban life. “Forgotten stairwells have got a lot of tales to tell / About going up then falling down… Everything falls apart / It doesn’t matter if you’re ready or not.” The echoey, shimmery “Only In The Wild” follows, with guest harmony vocals from Hunter’s cousin and fellow singer-songwriter T. Hardy Morris (Dead Confederate, Diamond Rugs).

“I Need You More Than Life”—an expansive song of devotion—adds an unexpected synth accent to a resonant number that feels like Drive-By Truckers in an especially melodic mood. Then thrummy mid-tempo number “The Invisible Boy” offers a kind of introvert’s lament, both playful and sad as Morris sings “Show up to the costume party as naked as a baby’s smile / And go home knowing that you saw it with the eyes of a child through it all / ’Cause everyone’s a kid at heart / We just dress the part.”

The title track is a fatalistic small-town parable with a mid-’60s Beatles/Dylan flavor, with handclaps and rhythmic little electric flares decorating a lyric about a doomed couple: “A stoner Mona Lisa / Wry smile to hide her haze / She knew how to find peace in the pain… / Livin’ this hard ain’t easy / And stayin’ young is killin’ me.” “Tell The Truth” goes full folk-rock harmonica and fiddle and pointed lyrics about a man butting heads with his parents’ expectations: “What if I don’t want to be what you want for me? / What if I don’t want to stay where you lived all your days?”

Morris evokes American Aquarium most clearly on “This Lonely Home”—a mid-tempo track rich with literate, distinctly Southern melancholy and self-reflection—and “Stowaways,” with its chunky electric guitar riding the line between dirge and celebration.

The album closes with a lullaby of sorts: “Until You’re Dreaming,” a delicate piano ballad, embellished by fiddle, with an extended choral outro. It’s gorgeous, and yet another track that benefits from Hackett’s burnished, echoey production, which again and again feels both stylized and utterly natural, drawing you closer to the heart of the music.

After serving in “a series of bands that explored everything from dark, heavy rock to polished, indie twang,” Mountain Of Youth represents Morris’ debut as a solo singer-songwriter, a showcase for the familiar influences that have fed into his unique and memorable voice. The songs are superb, the players are excellent, the production frames it all beautifully.

And the vibe? The vibe is simply outstanding.

Rating: A-

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