Sunsmoke Riser, the third full-band release from Tucson-based band Quincy, merges ambitious folk-rock arrangements with alternatively earnest and angsty lyrics. Production and songwriting by Quincy's Christopher Beeson branches out to the romantic and the experimental (in tracks like "I Want To Be The Man" and "Epilogue"), but finds middle ground in the title track, a straightforward folk-rock meditation on redemption through fire. Sunsmoke Riser is one of those transitional records from a band that tries out a lot of styles. While you can sense how carefully the players tread through the delicate arrangement on "Last Good Day," in a song like "Quincy," the band confidently smashes folk and rock together in a dark, mid-western manifesto. A couple of rousing instrumentals ("Night Rabbit" and "Bela & Cash") round out this new collection. Quincy's bass player Jack Fandray says, "It sounds a gazillion times better and more coherent than it has any right to, considering the fragmented way it was pieced together." Indeed. The Tucson Weekly wrote of Quincy's previous record ('My Heart Is Like A River'), "Beeson's been playing and writing good music for a long time; just read the list of press quotes on his former Portland, Ore. band Demi-Dryer's CD Baby page. Not to knock my fellow local born-and-bred musicians, but the more folks like Beeson who move here and up the ante, the better off we'll all be."