Nowhere Man and a Whiskey Girl

Surreptitiously, like folkie snipers in the night, devoted aficionados of this Willcox-based duo have been sneak-listening to tracks from their most recent record, Just Like the Others, and waiting on official availability as the lactic acid built up in their cramped ear muscles. Shoot, it'd been so long that all three dogs in the album's Tres Perros suite are dead now (rest in peace, Fiver). The band's gigs at Carly's Bistro — covering Wednesday nights for 727 Records labelmates Fatigo during last summer's tour — just compounded the exquisite torture. Flocks of fans braved the E. coli spinach scare to discover that the cuddly couple of NMWG, Amy and Derrick Ross, can play and sing anything from obscure They Might Be Giants and Fiona Apple tracks to, well, obscure '60s soundtracks — not to mention their own meticulous, hauntingly original work.

The new disc, NMWG's second, covers songs by quirky local talents Robin Vining, Lonna Kelley, and World Class Thugs, along with Tori Amos and Sleepwalker tunes that sound both more cheerful and more creepy than ever before. It's been — ow! son of a bitch! — released at last, and an intimate Valley show is on tap.