Life Full of Holes

Chris Eckman and Carla Torgerson’s debut studio effort as a duo wasn’t simply the two of them as on the live album Shelter for an Evening, with numerous guests making appearances including Walkabouts bandmates, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, the Young Fresh Fellows’ Scott McGaughey and, on two tracks, “Velvet Fog” and a cover of George Jones’s “Take Me,” the Tindersticks, a band perfectly simpatico with the general Walkabouts approach. But Chris and Carla remain the center of it all, with songs like “Sleep Will Pass Us By” showing a stark beauty.