Pitchfork

The Skygreen Leopards are one of the charter franchises of the prolific Jewelled Antler Collective, so it's probably redundant to mention that group members Glenn Donaldson and Shayde Sartin have lately been involved in recording with several extracurricular side projects. Two of these records-- Wooden Wand and the Sky High Band's Second Attention and Flying Canyon's self-titled debut-- are germane to the discussion of the Leopards' latest, Disciples of California. When considered together, these three albums form a symmetrical trilogy of sun-dazed Americana, complementary enough to have been conceived around the same Mendocino County fire ring. And though all this extra activity puts the Skygreen Leopards at risk of diluting their own album's overall impact, Disciples of California succeeds on the cumulative strength of the group's songcraft, inventive musicianship, and their unforced, wholly infectious esprit de corps.

On Disciples of California, the Leopards have begun to edge away from the florid acid-folk expression of 2005's charming Life and Love in Sparrow's Meadow. Always the most melodic and overtly poppy of the Jewelled Antler groups, the Leopards' music here increasingly takes on a gentle but distinct cosmic-country twang, guided by the hushed voices of Donaldson and veteran multi-instrumentalist Donovan Quinn. Recorded virtually live in the group's own studio, the album's spacious sound takes advantage of the Skyband rhythm section of drummer Jasmyn Wong and bassist Sartin. Organic improvisation has always been a crucial Jewelled Antler hallmark, but here the Leopards have put a newfound emphasis on disciplined choreography, reportedly even going so far as to enlist modern dance instructor Vaslav Treacy to help them hone and focus their graceful, shambolic pulse.

As with Wooden Wand's Second Attention, the Leopards' songs here are liberally sprinkled with oblique biblical references, most explicitly on the central track "Jesus Was Californian" (I'm guessing the Kris Kristofferson allusion is no accident, either.) While this song's theological intent is murky, lines like "Jesus drank by the ocean/ And slept through your tent revival" might indicate a desire to reclaim a sense of religion's essential humanity and mysticism. Further spiritualist pilgrimages are made on "William & the Sacred Hammer", on which the narrator brings all of his "virtues and sins" to the mysterious sage "Willie" while a lonesome pedal steel cries in the middle distance. Elsewhere, "Sally Orchid" and its follow-up "I Remember Sally Orchid" voice an almost prayerful devotion to a beauty who may or may not be an actual ghost, with Donaldson and Quinn joining their whispers to ask earnestly, "How many stones in the temple are you haunting?"

But the Leopards save their most potent hymns (and their purest melodies) for such decidedly pro-California cuts as the Gram Parsons shuffle "Places West of Shawnapee" or the beatific title track. Here and throughout Disciples of California, they pay reverent homage to their home state largely by drawing broadly from its musical heritage, their songs bearing the dreamy echoes of Buffalo Springfield, vibrant Bay Area psychedelia, and Bakersfield country-rock. Lacking a vocalist as charismatic as Wooden Wand's James Toth or Flying Canyon's Cayce Lindner, the Skygreen Leopards instead often have to get their dusky spirit texts across though their deftly woven melodies and sheer communal drive. And as Disciples of California ably illustrates, these are qualities conveniently reserved in abundance within the Leopards' Pacific nation.