There’s a warm, lived-in feeling to the self-titled debut from Bonny Light Horseman, the new indie-rock supergroup featuring Fruit Bats singer/ songwriter Eric D. Johnson, Tonywinning Hadestown creator Anaïs Mitchell and former Yellowbirds multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaufman, who has worked with Hiss Golden Messenger, Josh Ritter, Bob Weir and The National. An album made for vinyl in the streaming era, Bonny Light Horseman evokes the classic folk sound, yet still feels like a product of today. Fans of Fruit Bats, Mitchell’s solo work, and Kaufman’s contributions to Weir’s Blue Mountain will immediately recognize this band’s dreamy atmospherics. Johnson and Mitchell, distinctive and often breathtaking singers, trade lead vocals, harmonizing frequently on songs that namecheck Napoleon Bonaparte (“Bonny Light Horseman”), the Bible (“Jane Jane”) and John Henry (“Mountain Rain”). Johnson’s “The Magpie’s Nest” is a standout on an album full of them, with an epic, dreamy build and the delicate sound of Kaufman’s fingers moving up and down the fretboard. You can hear touches of Bon Iver in Michael Lewis’ moody sax playing, which adds texture to the title track, “Magpie’s Nest” and Mitchell’s “Lowlands.” Justin Vernon himself even takes a lead vocal on the gospel-influenced “Bright Morning Stars,” making clear that this album is about more than just its three main collaborators. Bonny Light Horseman is out on 37d03d, Vernon and The National guitarist Aaron Dessner’s record label. For Johnson to so quickly follow up Fruit Bats’ eighth record, 2019’s Gold Past Life, with this album and for Mitchell to choose it as her first release since Hadestown became a Broadway sensation, only affirms that Bonny Light Horseman is a special project that its creators have been waiting to share with the world. Rudi Greenberg