Alela & Alina

It’s uncanny how the voices of Alela Diane and fellow folk singer Alina Hardin go together as well as their first names, which the duo used to title 2009’s *Alela & Alina*. The Diane-penned “Amidst the Movement” opens with perfect vocal harmonies recalling moments of June Tabor and Maddy Prior’s 1976 album *Silly Sisters* (sans English accents). Diane and Hardin’s voices fuse even closer on “Bowling Green” which isn’t a cover of the Everly Brothers tune by the same name — it’s actually a curiously abbreviated title of the Weavers’ “Good Old Bowling Green.” Here Diane and Hardin croon over delicately plucked acoustic arpeggios, making Kentucky seem like heaven on earth. Hardin takes the lead vocal on her own flowery “Crying Wolf.” Sustaining a timeless feel, they follow with the traditional “Matty Groves” before ending on a gorgeous cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Rake.”