The first time you try to describe The Wailin’ Jennys’ music to someone, you may stumble — as I have stumbled — over the inadequacy of language to the capturing of sonic phenomena. Wikipedia punts, dubbing them folk and/or folk-rock. Neither of which feels right to me; I prefer the sense you get from their bio, posted at their site. There you’ll find words and phrases like:

• folk-roots
• roots music
• bluegrass
• neo-bluegrass
• alt-country, pop, and rock
• acoustic
• folk-pop
• show-stopping harmonies

Because of those vocal harmonies, you may also forget (as I have forgotten) that their music is not a capella: they each play at least one instrument as well. This list is probably not comprehensive:

• accordion
• banjo
• bodhrán
• guitar
• harmonica
• piano
• upright bass

The Jennys have a new album out, Bright Morning Stars, and it’s a killer. But their take on the venerable “The Parting Glass,” below, appeared on their first full-length album, 2004’s 40 Days:

Lyrics:

The Parting Glass
(The Wailin’ Jennys)

Oh all the money that e’er I spent
I spent it in good company
And all the harm that e’er I’ve done
Alas, it was to none but me
And all I’ve done for want of wit
To memory now I can’t recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all

Oh all the comrades that e’er I’ve had
Are sorry for my going away
And all the sweethearts that e’er I’ve had
Would wish me one more day to stay
But since it falls unto my lot
That I should rise and you should not
I’ll gently rise and I’ll softly call
Good night and joy be with you all

The Wailin’ Jennys got their name, of course, as a play on the name of outlaw-country icon Waylon Jennings (who shared many a parting glass of his own before gently rising at last in 2002). I am not much of a listener to country music, even the outlaw variety, but I’ve always thought Jennings’s cover of “Suspicious Minds” (recorded as a duet, with his wife Jessi Colter) superior to Elvis Presley’s. Jennings’s voice sounds to me less like someone performing, more like someone honestly frustrated by a situation at least partly of his own making. And as a sort of call-and-response duet, the lyrics acquire a complexity which I think they lack otherwise:

[Below, click Play button to begin Suspicious Minds. While audio is playing, volume control appears at left — a row of little vertical bars. This clip is 3:56 long.]

Lyrics:

Suspicious Minds
(by Mark James; performed by Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter)

We’re caught in a trap can’t walk out
Because I love you too much baby
Why can’t you see what you’re doing to me
When you don’t believe a word I’m saying.

We can’t go on together
With suspicious minds
We can’t do our dreams
On suspicious minds.

I saw an old friend I know I stopped to say hello
But I could still see suspicion in your eyes
Here we go again you ask me where I’ve been
You can’t see the tears are real I’m crying.

We can’t go on together
With suspicious minds
We can’t build our dreams
On suspicious minds.

Let our love survive
Or dry the tears from your eyes
Don’t let a good thing die
Don’t you know I never lied to you?

We’re caught in a trap can’t walk out
Because I love you too much baby…
[repeat to fade]