Never Had the Time (Knuckleduster)

Call it roots rock, alt-country, electric folk, or what-have-you; Portage & Main’s brand of twang isn’t reinventing the wheel, and that’s okay. The wheel’s doing just fine as it is, and Portage & Main keeps it rolling as sweetly as a backwoods stream.

On its sophomore LP, Never Had the Time, the Vancouver band, led by singer-songwriters Harold Donnelly and John Sponarski, perfects its own tuneful take on the genre, brimming with multipart vocal harmonies (often featuring the honey-dipped voice of Savannah Wellman) and Georges Couling’s whirling Hammond organ. Portage & Main is equally adept at rollicking booze-ups like the Band–evoking “Sweet Darlin’ ” and slow-burning weepers, like the expansive, eight-minutes-plus closer “It Is You.”

There’s something wistful and nostalgic about the album, from its sepia-toned cover art to lyrics about chances not taken (“Never Had the Time”), the fleeting dream that is youth (“As a Child”), and the memories of a lifetime passed too quickly (the downright tear-jerking “Epitaph”). That makes it an ideal listen for anyone who feels inclined to sit around wondering where in the hell the good years went. Not that I know anyone like that.