What would you do with a drum, chain, concrete cylinder, and a fragment of railroad track? For most, this material is reserved for the garbage, or maybe some type of X-Games inspired stunt. For the Northampton-based band Woodford Way, this stash of hardware is everything necessary to incite an inspired song intro. That’s right, Woodford Way has come out with a fresh new album entitled There And Back, and it is damn fine.

The jazz element that makes Woodford Way’s music so appealing has to do with how creatively and deliberately the band has balanced out its sound. Producer and bass player Eric Arena, drummer Riley Godleski, and percussionist Tim Lynch (all of whom are new additions to the band) prove to be ingenious musicians, winning back some of the attention Kyle Mangini garners as vocalist.

I found There And Back to be a pleasant, well-produced elucidation of folky smoothness. Mangini demonstrates a vocal intelligence that matches guitarist Jeff Lynch’s interjections extremely well. With James Taylor, Paul Simon, and Bob Dylan cited as influences on Woodford Way’s Facebook page, it is easy to get a sense of where these guys hope to end up, and with such a confluence of style and personality, it seems entirely conceivable that they might make it. Call it folk, jazz, or pop, Woodford Way’s album There And Back is just about as good a petition to garner favor for either genre as I have come across.

(Take This To Heart Records, no address provided)