"STEWARDS OF THE ROTTING WORLD" :: DUCK TURNSTONE is a wacky & wise rock band from the wild west of Colorado, trafficking in observational lyricism and soft grunge. Melissa Jones waxes about everything with an equal clairvoyance and casual intensity; whether it's visions of babies sprouting from the floors of her house, the existential dread of dating, or the varying number of wheels beneath the feet of passing parkgoers. Possessing the innate magnetism of sui-generis folk songwriters like Jeff Mangum & Cat Power (especially on the penultimate track "Friends of Animals"), but with an air of inviting openness more in the Bill Callahan vein -- it's classic, but not retro. Crunchy, but not caustic. DUCK TELLS A STORY. Listen up!

Melissa Jones, after performing around the Minneapolis 2010's scene for a few years, relocates to Denver right before Covid hits. She lands a job at the Children's Museum in downtown Denver, where she works alongside another recent transplant named Abby Gregg, a painter with an MFA from San Fransisco Art Institute and deep ties to Athens music scene.

During her time at SFAI, Abby Gregg formed a collaborative experimental-pop project called UMA'S THERMOS and released an album called "COLOR FIELDS" (MBR-72). After graduating, Gregg and partner Taber Lathrop began driving back home towards Georgia, but stopped in an abandoned Colorado ghost-town called "Uptop" to spend a few weeks, relax, and decompress. It must have worked -- they never made it any further East; instead gravitating to nearby Denver, where they soon find a kindred spirit in fellow newcomer Melissa Jones and her conversational, profound sense for songwriting. The trio begin practicing together regularly in a tiny apartment in Englewood, Jones evoking smart, idiosyncratic Joanna Newsom-isms over the primitive backing rhythms of Gregg's Casio keyboard.

Once the newly-christened DUCK TURNSTONE had worked up enough material for a record, the gang packed up and drove to Athens, Georgia, where they met up with Jack Blauvelt (Neighbor Lady, CDSM) at the Normaltown home of Jojo Glidewell (Of Montreal, Modern Skirts) to make a proper hi-fi studio album. For the first time, Jones's songs were fleshed out into full-band arrangements, with Lathrop's basslines locking into the deep, borderline-hip hop grooves laid down by Blauvelt. Jones lyrically dances over the tracks; hollering, whispering, sometimes sounding like she's audibly smiling, chuckling at the subjects of her writing. The album lives up to it's title & cover, like the listener has been invited to a strange primordial campfire where Jones recites her evocative prose. Glidewell appears once -- on saxophone, of all things -- but exercises a masterful hand in presenting the songs on DUCK TELLS A STORY in a manner that, along with Ross Brown's (Shy Boys) stately mix, is as organic, colorful and playful as the songs themselves.

RIYL: Nap Eyes, Courtney Barnett, Big Thief