The Ravenna Colt is the brainchild of former My Morning Jacket guitarist Johnny Quaid, introducing his new band with the debut album ‘Slight Spell’.

The groups brings a great sound to the table, in between folk and dream-pop, with a certain southern rock flavor to it.

The glowing texture of keys and slide guitars of ‘South of Ohio’ makes for a great start, setting coordinates for the whole record to develop song by song: ‘Loner in disguise’ has a ‘poppier’ vibe, followed by the dreamy ‘according to the matador’ and the ballad ‘If Josie Wails can fail’.

‘Now to Begin’ might get close to some shoegaze – post rock (it would fit perfectly in the soundtrack of ‘Lost in Translations’). The band chose to push on the accelerator for the last couple of tracks ‘prepare to be delivered’ and ‘forsake and combine’, that give a rockier twist to the album, still keeping the space-folk vibe alive.

Slight spell offers a great candle-lit sound: bright acoustic guitars are topped by glowing electric guitar walls, twangy riffs and Neil Young – style singing.  A simple, but effective rhythm section definitely helps to push the dynamics of the record out.

Other than being a great debut album for The Ravenna Colt, this record is also the first release on Removador recordings and solutions, which was started by the group’s front man together with Jim James (My Morning Jacket).