Little Amber Bottles is out now!

"If our first album was about life throwing you in a ditch and thinking about why these horribly sad things happen, I guess this one is about pulling yourself out of that ditch", says Dan John Miller of Blanche's second LP Little Amber Bottles.

With glints of grit and strychnine-laced grandeur from the birthplace of Motown, Blanche weave eerily beautiful tales, inspired by Depression-era blues, early country music, and stripped-down rock 'n' roll, all delivered in the style of an electrified gospel quintet.

Recorded by Mark Nevers (Lambchop, Will Oldham) in his Nashville bungalow and by David Feeny in Detroit, Little Amber Bottles is the follow-up to 2004's debut If We Can't Trust The Doctors: a spooked set of tales of the unexpected that dealt with faith, no hope and very little charity. Featuring an eerie cover of The Gun Club's punk-blues classic Jack On Fire, it was an album that led critics to draw comparisons with Nick Cave's black-hearted romance and the back porch charm of The Carter Family. Blanche proved they could deliver the goods live when they toured the UK with The White Stripes, Calexico and played the Leeds, Reading, Rock de Seine, Pukkelpopp, Lowlands and Vital festivals in 2004. They then formed the spine of Loretta Lynn's backing band on her Grammy-winning Van Lear Rose album.

At the centre of all this haunting yet inviting music are the married couple Tracee Mae and Dan John Miller. You may recognise Dan from the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line, in which he played Luther Perkins (naturally, Tracee played Luther's wife). He and Tracee also sing on Charlie Louvin's recent self-titled comeback album.

Little Amber Bottles is an album of redemption, and while it finds Blanche in an angrier mood, that tone is alternately aggressive and dreamy. The personal songwriting is more developed, with textured arrangements often soaked in reverb, resulting in a sophisticated, soulful simple sound.

Tracee's starkly poignant vocals and evocative lyrics drive the title and track, while her vocal interplay with Dan is highlighted on several heartwarming (and sometimes heartbreaking) duets. They are deftly framed by the group of top-notch musicians who complete the Blanche family: pedal steel wizard Feeny, Little Jack Lawrence (of The Greenhornes and The Raconteurs ) on banjo and mandolin, and primal drummer Lisa Jaybird Jannon. Little Jack handles lead vocals on his self-penned number O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?, while special guest Isobel Campbell plays cello on No Matter Where You Go.