The Sheds

Detail: You can't help it. When a song gets you, it gets you. Maybe the words describe your father's eyes, your closest friend, the addiction you cannot shake. Perhaps it's the shy interlude, the shocking chorus. Maybe it's the steamy beat, as hot as makeup sex. After 18 years, your parents split. Your friend overdosed. You're so tired, lost in love. Sometimes songs capture the essence of familiarity, sucking it in, then exhaling. Such is the case with The Sheds.

The duo -- Chris Haubner and Paul Bunyan -- both sing and play multiple instruments including piano, guitar, banjo, drums, keys, violin, xylophone, banjar and kalimba. Both guys are thinkers, mulling things over before offering any juice. Even with The Comet's jukebox charging, this near-winter afternoon with The Sheds is gentle, full of subtle gestures, shifts and pauses.

Home base is Kentucky, but both are touched by wanderlust. Haubner's hometown is called "All Over." Reserved in speech and motion, Haubner remains still. Quietly, he speaks. But his singing voice leaves a less guarded impression, revealing what might not otherwise leak out. Slightly throaty and borderline breathy, he sings in clear, inviting whispers.

Like his mythic namesake, Bunyan stands tall, and a large ax would fit well in one of his hands. His knit, hippie-style hat droops over long, dark hair that blends into a scruffy mustache and beard. Atop his left ear, an uncapped pen rests. Bunyan's voice is deep, definite, a low tone hinting at sarcasm. In "Smoke Me Tonight," he sings, "You look so tired, baby/Your eyes look so bloodshot." A nicotine-rich love song, it's strangely funny and urgent.