Mark Ray Lewis, the smoky-voiced leader of the dark and hypnotic folk outfit Trilobite, comes with an impressive literary pedigree: dude was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford and won the O. Henry and Pushcart awards for his short fiction piece Scordatura — which featured an introductory note by Dave Eggers, and was nominated by Joyce Carol Oates. So, as you can imagine, the lyrics on his debut musical release are, uh, “deep.” (We’ll be winning no such awards anytime soon, we know.)

You won’t need a thesaurus and a lyric sheet to appreciate Trilobite, though; cue up “Pumpkin Farmer” and see why we fell in love with this record last week. Mark’s voice melds beautifully with that of Michelle Collins, the violin and acoustic being all the accompaniment they need. Sometimes innocent, sometimes spooky (ala “Hunky Kentuckian”), always a great listen.

Trilobite – “Pumpkin Farmer” (MP3)
Trilobite – “Hunky Kentuckian” (MP3)
Trilobite – “Samsara” (MP3)

Enjoy.