Indian Valley Line Delivers Pure, Pretense-Free Happy

Bands mining traditional Americana sounds come a dime a dozen nowadays, but you can count the number of 'em that actually capture the unbridled joy of their influences on Mickey Mouse's left hand.

In a world of whinging neo-folkies and over-studied No Depression mewlers, Indian Valley Line sound like the real, wonderfully unaffected deal: Three guys who'd be just as happy bashing away at their unadorned country-bluegrass tunes on a front porch under a restless night sky as in front of an audience. Which makes being in an audience for one of their shows a party, pure and simple.

The band's surging acoustic sound alternates chugging Johnny Cash old-school rockers with the sweet sting of Ryan Lynch's weepy electric guitar, and lead singer Kevin "Bubba" Sur belts out the tunes in a warm and keening Woody Guthrie wail that can't help but put a smile on your face. The band's packing an armada of great material, too: "Cleveland" bounces down the road like a great lost Chet Atkins track, and I triple-dog-dare you not to clap along to the joyous "On a Shelf."

They're playing at the Big House Church in Ballard (a house of worship that's been reconverted into an artist's commune) Sunday evening at a good, respectable, God-fearin' start time (7 p.m.). You couldn't ask for a more perfect setting for a foot-stomping hoot and holler straight outta O Brother Where Art Thou.