For being such a notoriously dark and dreary city, Seattle puts out some remarkably upbeat music. Mid-century Seattle was responsible for Ray Charles’ first recording, Loretta Lynn’s rise to fame, and even—for reasons completely unknown—the first surf guitar, à la The Ventures. Birch Pereira & The Gin Joints understand this eclectic musical landscape well. The Gin Joints, based in the Pacific Northwest, got their footing playing music from the 1930s to 1950s, a lost era of what would become the death rattle of big band swing and the birth song of rock n’ roll. However, in what music history remembers as a void, Birch Pereira found a treasure trove. He reaches back in time to pull forward the elements that the Pacific Northwest has forgotten—the timber-darkened soul music, the Black & Tan underground jazz, the improbable surf music—and in his hands, they become Western Soul, a blend of west coast sounds and early Americana.