The Juncos lay their folksy fundamentals on the Pierce tasting room for free.

The Santa Cruz-based Juncos seem to sense that few musical things can tip people into a feeling of pleasant simplicity like acoustic harmonies, lively string instruments and lyrics about living life. 


Songs like “Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dyin’ Bed” paint scenes – and inspire steady foot-tapping – through bluegrassy acoustic strumming with a reflective edge. Violin strings articulate strong emotion, and front man Joshua Lowe explores the peace he anticipates at the end of his days. Nothing arrives overdone or melodramatic – this is a story of a man that has no unfinished business and can “die easy.”


“In my time of dyin’/ Don’t want nobody to cry,” he sings. “All I want you to do/ is to take me when I die.” 


Another down-to-earth song on their At the Feet of Old Bristlecone album, “Killin’ Time,” is both string-heavy and emotionally heavy, full of short tales about men and women, including Lowe himself, finding themselves in tough situations. His cousin faces long days, weeks and years in jail; Lowe waits out an debilitating injury; and then, in a twist, an overburdened mother daydreams of having just a few minutes of her own to waste.


One interesting dynamic of The Juncos is their preference in recording methods: They play and sing using one microphone together in one room without headphones, a move that works magic for their acoustic elements and bright vocal harmonies. The final result is an album with great dynamic range, on which turning the volume up causes the listener to hear natural and authentic instrument qualities unobscured by modern digital recording at the same volume. 


“It’s kinda stripped down, rootsy, simulating the old bluegrass sound, sharing one mic,” says Olana Sullivan, who booked the group for Pierce. “It fits in well with our environment: an old coverted Victorian house, all hardwood and intimate. 


“It’s the perfect atmosphere for music like that.” 


THE JUNCOS play 8pm Friday, Dec. 23, at Pierce Ranch Vineyards, 499 Wave St., Monterey. No cover. 372-8900, http://thejuncos.com.