"Now I just break everything I touch . . . " It is fair to assume that Duluth, Minnesota songwriter Dave Simonett, aka Dead Man Winter, was not in the best of places for his second album. Simonett, better known for his work with progressive bluegrass band Trampled By Turtles, was going through a painful divorce, and Furnace is its retro-styled soundtrack.

As such, it is easy to discern rejection, bitterness, self-loathing, guilt and despair in tracks such as This House Is On Fire, Destroyer, Am I Breaking Down, Cardinal and Weight of the World. The music and the sentiments are dark and raw, but also quite striking in part, as indeed is the loose-limbed four-piece band enlisted by Simonett. There is little seepage from his day job in the 1960s-influenced country rock, the best of which is redolent of The Byrds and The Band.

The result: pain and a degree of solace. deadmanwinter.com