Personnel: M. Ward (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Carlos Forster (vocals); Adam Selzer (dulcimer, mandolin, percussion).

in 2007, Merge came through with a long-overdue reissue of M. Ward's debut, DUETS FOR GUITAR #2, which finds Ward's recipe--a unique one built on open-chord folk, jazzy vocal phrasing, and indie rock arrangements--almost startlingly fully formed. While his approach reached peak form on 2006's stand-out POST-WAR, here he sounds hungrier, and it lends the songs a rawer, more human feel.

First self-released and then picked up by Howie Gelb's label Ow-Ow in 2000, the album focuses mostly on acoustic musings such as "Good News," "Song From Debby's Stairs," and "Were You There," which feature Ward's undeniably accomplished guitar picking and breezy vocal husk, but breaks up the sequence with the occasional crunchy rocker ("Look Me Over"). Since DUETS, Ward's songs have helped hawk Cadillacs and he's toured the world with Norah Jones, but this reissue shows what impressed in the first place: ace songwriting, impeccable guitar chops, and a voice that simultaneously soothes and haunts.

Originally released in 1999, M. Ward's debut is a sparse, mostly live affair recorded with pal and engineer Adam Selzer of Norfolk & Western at Type Foundry Studio in Portland, OR. Listeners who are already accustomed to Ward's breathy, conversational vocal delivery and soft-picked, West Coast Americana melodies will find much to love here, while those looking for good entry point should probably start with one of his later albums. Duet for Guitars #2 is peppered with instrumentals in the John Fahey and Bad Timing-era Jim O'Rourke vein, and Ward's lackadaisical picking sounds just as lazily precise here as it does on future recordings. There's a real warmth to the sessions that transcends the often bare-bones production. For the most part, it sound like most takes were done live with two microphones, with the occasional overdub, and that style suits Ward's dreamy tales of molasses-slow teenage summers ("Beautiful Car") and oddball parables like "Fishing Boat Sons." It's also interesting to hear him shedding the inflections of some of his more obvious heroes like Neil Young ("Who May Be Lazy") and Bob Dylan ("It Won't Happen Twice"). Duet for Guitars #2 sounds like a debut. It's got some filler and it tips to the lo-fi end of the scale more often than not, but it's brimming over with promise and timelessness. ~ James Christopher Monger

Spin (p.124) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[A] collection of stripped-down love songs swathed in tape hiss that owe much to mid-'70s Neil Young."