Last year, Bradenton-based quintet Have Gun, Will Travel caught the attention of NPR with their stylistic and thematic take on Old West-flavored Americana in Casting Shadows Tall as Giants, their sophomore full-length.

The band’s self-released third effort, Postcards from the Friendly City (out Nov. 17) maintains the dusty trailblazing charm of its predecessor with rambling melodies, rustic musical textures — banjo, lap steel and acoustic guitar, viola, harmonica, percussive frills from cowbell to shakers — and the vivid storytelling of lead singer/songwriter Matt Burke, his lyricism continuing to draw from different moods of times long past.

The pervading call of crickets and other rural evening sounds open the ominous “Wolf in Shepard’s Clothes” as the underlings of a toxic leader plan a revolution: “We got the number while the captain slumbered, and we’re gonna cut him down.”

This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2009.