Destry will highlight tunes from its enchanting new album this weekend at Bar Matchless and Maxwell’s
Saturday, May 14, Bar Matchless, 557 Manhattan Ave. at Driggs Ave., Williamsburg, $8, 718-383-5333, 8:00
Sunday, May 15, Maxwell’s, 1039 Washington St., Hoboken, $8-$10, 201-653-1703, 6:00
www.myspace.com/destrymusic
Born and raised in Nassau County, Michelle DaRosa of Straylight Run teamed up with Tyler Odom of the Alabama band Cassino to form Destry, releasing its debut, It Goes On, in 2009. The duo is now back with its enchanting follow-up, Waiting on an Island, an album filled with dreamy retro pop. “Oh, I can tell that it’s gonna be sunny from now sunny from now on / and don’t you forget it / If it tries to rain on me / just don’t let it,” DaRosa sings on “Gone.” Recorded at Tyler’s home studio in Dallas, the album also includes such delightfully ’50s- and ’60s-tinged tracks as “This Island,” “Don’t Break My Heart,” and “Leave the Light On” (but skip over the back-to-back acoustic folk pablum of “Into the Rain” and “Alabama”). DaRosa’s voice seems to be floating on a cloud on the beautiful ballad “It All Got Worse.” And you will indeed smile all the way through “Smile,” with its bright, airy chorus, “They say to smile though your heart aches / They say to smile though your heart breaks.” The former Michelle Nolan, who is married to Dropkick Murphys multi-instrumentalist Jeff DaRosa and is based in Boston, and Odom, who is based in Nashville, will be at Bar Matchless on May 14 with These Animals, Communipaw, and Foreverinmotion and at Maxwell’s on May 15 with Communipaw, Kaia, and Jennifer O’Connor.