The new North Carolina/Illinois sextet Dowsers brings together members of some of the best bands in the experimental folk-rock underground. The personnel: Courtney Werner and Evan Morgan (Magic Tuber Stringband, Weirs), Austin Cash (solo artist, Nathan Smearage), Oliver Child-Lanning (Weirs, Sluice, Fust), James Gibian (Beak Trio), and Alli Rogers (Alli Blois). As a person who has blogged many an excited blog post about acts from that world, I was delighted to learn about this crew.

Hearing their music was delightful too. Dowsers, who also organize a music festival called FEAST, are announcing their signing to Gar Hole Records today with a pair of new tracks: "Dogwood," a slow-swaying roots-rock ballad, and "Three Forks Of Cheat," a rustic post-rock instrumental based on an old Edden Hammons fiddle tune.…