(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion bring their new sound and new repertoire of songs from their third studio album, Wassaic Way, to Club Helsinki Hudson on Saturday, September 7, 2013, at 9pm. Produced by Jeff Tweedy and Patrick Sansone of Wilco, the 11-song album introduces a new Guthrie and Irion, with resonant melodies amid lush soundscapes that vividly evoke a range of moods, from carefree and playful to contemplative and melancholy, taking advantage of the beautifully organic blend of the duo’s harmony vocals.

Recorded in October 2012 at The Loft in Chicago, the album captures the husband-and-wife duo at their creative peak, blazing paths into new territory at the same time they reveal (and revel in) their influences, from the Beatles to Neil Young to Fleetwood Mac to Wilco (of course). Indeed, the album could well be their own “Double Fantasy” – Irion’s performance on the title track conjures up the bittersweet love songs John Lennon shared with Yoko Ono on that other husband-and-wife duo record. And Guthrie has never sounded so dreamy.

It only makes sense that Jeff Tweedy would have wound up working with Sarah Lee Guthrie, given Wilco’s connection to the work of her grandfather on several albums of unfinished Woody Guthrie songs the band recorded with Billy Bragg. Wilco also invited Sarah Lee and Johnny to perform at the band’s Solid Sound Festival in 2011, and the duo had toured with the Autumn Defense, Sansone’s project with Wilco bassist John Stirratt.

Tweedy seems to have challenged Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion – mostly thought of until now as an acoustic folk duo – to live up to their full musical promise, and captured it on Wassaic Way (Route 8 Records), which features musical backing by Tweedy and Sansone as well as drummer Otto Hauser, of Hudson, N.Y., and bassist Charlie Rose.

For reservations in The Restaurant or in the club call 518.828.4800.