According to their website, thelighthouseandthewhaler.com, the band, The Lighthouse and the Whaler, had a storybook beginning.  For some reason, the three future band members were in a field for a photoshoot.  I don't know why the photoshoot was in a field or why the three were even in a photoshoot, for that matter.  I've Google-imaged them all and none of them are particularly good-looking.  Anyway, so these average-looking guys are in a field, waiting around to get their photograph taken, and they all just happen to have musical instruments on them.  They commence playing said musical instruments.  The three realize that it is good and decide to be a band.

Now I really do not believe any of that.  It sounds like a bad play.  The one kernel of truth in the story, however, is that the music they did or did not produce on that fateful day was good.  The Lighthouse and the Whaler combine folk and rock in a way synonymous to combining Great Northern with Sufjan Stevens.  Mandolins and violins are played, along with reverberated, quivering vocal harmonies that are, in one word, awesome.  Always in the background is the almost Americana rhythm of the acoustic guitar.  Bells and piano are often thrown in for good measure.  Instrumentally, vocally, just musically, this is a good, good band.

My favorite song is "Under Mountain, Under Ground."  The vocals, in the verses, the chorus, everything, are so soulful and heartfelt, they seem almost spiritual.

mp3 Under Mountain, Under Ground
mp3 Soon You'll Be Found
mp3 White Days