Striking a balance between mellow folk and West Coast indie pop, Portland-based Blind Pilot originally started as a duo comprised of singer/guitarist Israel Nebeker and drummer Ryan Dobrowski. In addition to headlining club and festival dates, the band has previously supported Langhorne Slim, Gomez, Counting Crows, The Hold Steady, and The Decemberists.

On her third Nonesuch release, Saltbreakers, singer-songwriter Laura Veirs remains tantalized by the mysteries and marvels of the natural world, filling her work with images, both precise and poetic, of the ocean and the stars. But she digs even deeper this time into the vagaries of human nature, transforming the turbulence of her own life, as well as her concerns about the hair-trigger state of the world at large, into a collection of songs distinguished as much by their emotional urgency as by their often astonishing musical inventiveness. Veirs recorded the album in Seattle, with band-mate Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Bill Frisell) once again producing and mixing. Though she now calls her group Saltbreakers, it's actually comprised of her longtime compatriots, formerly known as the Tortured Souls -- guitarist/bassist Karl Blau, keyboardist Steve Moore and drummer Tucker Martine.

Her upcoming album is titled July Flame and is due to be released in 2009.