Warm in the Wake

The Atlanta, Georgia ensemble originally known as King Lear Jet drew from the stripped-down pop strengths of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash while licensing material to series such as Felicity and Dawson's Creek. In the early 2000s the same musicians—Alabama natives Chris Rowell on vocals, James Taylor, Jr. on drums, and brothers Andy Barker on bass with Daniel Barker on keyboards—adopted the name Warm in the Wake and redirected their music toward lush, cosmic, folk-leaning territory that evoked the rustic leanings of alt-country acts like Wilco alongside the psychedelic textures of the Apples in Stereo and XTC. Their first EP, Port of Quick Returns, appeared in 2003. Four years afterward they released a second EP, Gold Dust Trail, together with their debut full-length album, American Prehistoric.