The Ash & Clay

Under the banner of The Milk Carton Kids, Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan make the most of the maxim “less is more.” The Milk Carton Kids perform and record with just two voices and two acoustic guitars; nothing on *The Ash & Clay* couldn’t be reproduced identically onstage. Even making the leap from releasing their own albums to recording for a high-profile, major-distribution label like Anti Records couldn’t sway the Kids from their minimalist path. Thank God for that, because there’s something special that happens when Pattengale and Ryan’s gentle voices curl around each other in homespun harmony and their guitar lines intertwine as if emerging from one instrument played by four hands. While “Honey, Honey” revolves around some fast-paced folkie fingerpicking and “Heaven” is fueled by peppy, country-flavored guitar licks, Pattengale and Ryan are confident enough in their approach to avoid the temptation to “rock out,” even in relative terms. *The Ash & Clay* offers a bounty of unabashedly beautiful, contemplative tunes delivered with little ado but an abundance of grace.

Ash & Clay, the second studio album from Los Angeles-based acoustic duo the Milk Carton Kids, offers up 12 no-frill slabs of vintage Greenwich Village-inspired folk that blend the close harmony singing of Simon & Garfunkel with the technical acumen of the Punch Brothers.

The sound of two voices and two guitars in harmony has been a cornerstone of American music since the beginning, from the Blue Sky Boys thro...

The Milk Carton Kids came together by chance when two years ago, Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan reached a fork in the road in terms of their respective...