Every once in a while, a group comes along that encapsulates all the qualities of music that I enjoy: close harmonies; thoughtful lyrics; warm, inviting music; and stellar performances — such a band is The Wildwoods.

This Lincoln, Nebraska folk/Americana threesome is made up of the husband-and-wife duo of Noah and Chloe Gose (guitar and violin respectively) and their longtime friend, Andrew Vaggalis (bass). Their latest album is “Foxfield Saint John.” They plan to perform at a premiere listening room, One Longfellow Square on Wednesday, Sept. 18, and to that end, I recently interviewed Chloe Gose. I began the Aug. 31 phone interview by gushing over what was on that latest release.

Q: Every aspect of “Foxfield Saint John” really excites me, from the close vocal harmonies so reminiscent of Starland Vocal Band as well as your wonderful violin work combined with intelligent, from-the-heart lyrics make your sound refreshingly familiar, and at the same time, new and comforting.
A: (chuckle) Well, thank you!

Q: Have you folks performed in Maine before?
A: No, this will be our first time coming up in a couple of weeks.

Q: Well, you’re coming into a venue I consider to be one of the best listening rooms in the state — One Longfellow Square.
A: That’s great to hear and we’re just so excited.

Q: You can make eye contact with everyone in the room, and what you do musically is so well-suited for that location, it is so intimate there.
A: That’s wonderful.

Q: Now, what album number is this one for you?
A: So, the one we just released is technically album number four, we did release a couple of albums before the four that I’m counting but we don’t have them on Spotify or anywhere to listen to anymore just because we recorded them when we were very young. My husband and I started the band when we were 14 and we had two albums we released when we were in early high school.

Q: How long have you been doing this?
A: So we’re both 26 now, so 12 years.

Q: Does songwriting come easy to you folks?
A: Yeah, I would say so. My husband, Noah, the guitarist in our band, he is the main songwriter and I feel like that’s always been his calling and his passion, he’s just really good at it. He also went to school for music composition and he’s really good at arranging things, too, to help make the song more than like just a singer/songwriter type of song, if that makes any sense.

Q: It does, and his use of language is just a sheer delight. Sometimes lyrics can be rather trite and predictable but yours are far from that, there’s depth there which goes very well with the instrumentation and the presentation that you put forth on this album.
A: Well, thank you!

Q: When did “Foxfield Saint John” come out?
A: We released that in February 2023.

Q: Are you constantly working on new material?
A: We are, we’re actually set to release a new album in April of next year. We have the album finished and recorded, we’re just working on getting all the other pieces put together to finally release the whole thing.

Q: When you come up to One Longfellow Square will you have backing musicians or will it be just the three of you?
A: It’s just the three of us. So the history of our band is a little bit wonky, I guess. My husband and I started it together with my older brother right before we got into high school, it was just the three of us playing all through our time in high school. After that we made friends with just so many musicians and wonderful people that we’ve enjoyed playing music with, so our band kind of went through a lineup of between five, six and seven people at certain points in time. And we did that up until COVID happened and then, of course, we couldn’t tour or play shows. So Noah and I just kind of rebranded the band as a duo during that time. When restrictions became lighter and it was acceptable to go out and play music in front of people again we toured for a little bit as a duo.

Q: Was that when Andrew Vaffalis, your bass player, joined the duo?
A: We’ve actually known him since high school and he was in our band when we had the bigger lineup of seven people, but with all of the songs that Noah has written and the arrangements we have put together, there’s always been a feeling that we should have a third voice in there, three-part harmony, so right before we put out the “Foxfield Saint John” album, Andy kind of joined us full time. So we became a trio again, not with my brother but with our best friend Andy.

Q: On the album there seems to be a full sound, layered sound. Do the songs take on a different feel with just the three of you?
A: To me, the song doesn’t really change too much, it does seem a little bit more stripped down, but we do the best that we can between the three of us to kind of still create that full energy around each of the songs.

Q: And the fact that the harmonies are going to be the same, whether you’ve got backing musicians or just the three of you.
A: Yeah.

Q: Well, seeing this show will be not just a venue debut but also a state debut, is there anything you’d like to pass on to the folks reading this article? 

A: Well, maybe just mention that we’re working to release a new album next year, and we’re going to have a lot more tour dates also in 2025, so I definitely see us coming back to the Maine area. I guess maybe one other thing is that we just released a new single, and will release another one at the end of September, to kind of prepare people about the next album. These singles will not be on that album but are available on our website which is thewildwoodsband.com.

Lucky Clark, a 2018 “Keeping the Blues Alive” Award winner, has spent more than 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.