Folk, country, garage rock combine in show

Banjos, mandolins and acoustic guitars will collaborate tonight at Local 506. Goodnight, Texas will perform with special guests The Bones of J.R. Jones and Less Is More, combining traditional folk with bluegrass, garage rock and a sprinkling of operatic vibrato.

“I hope that they realize that it is okay and good to rage to banjo music on Thursday night,” said Patrick Dyer Wolf, one of Goodnight, Texas’s lead singers.

Wolf formed the self-described “garage-Appalachian” quartet in 2011 while maintaining a long-term musical collaboration with fellow singer Avi Vincour between San Francisco and Chapel Hill. The band was officially born when the singers found a town exactly halfway between their homes called Goodnight, Texas.

Wolf spent four years playing in and around Chapel Hill before moving to New York, but he always focused on developing his sound with Vincour. The band’s sound is derived from garage rock and acoustic folk, a mixture Wolf said creates a heavy bluegrass vibe.

“We started as a duo doing Simon & Garfunkel-type harmonies on acoustic songs,” Wolf said. “We don’t play any electric guitars, but we try to hit hard if we can with our banjos and our acoustic guitars.”

Goodnight, Texas’ new album “Uncle John Farquhar” was released in August, and Wolf said the band is looking forward to playing new songs including “Button Your Collar” and the upbeat, banjo-laced track “A Bank Robber’s Nursery Rhyme.”

Wolf said he and Vincour are excited to bring their music to Chapel Hill and plan on returning in the near future.

“We want to keep going back to the places that we love and where we have fun,” Wolf said. “We still have a lot of friends in (Chapel Hill) and we love it. It’s like a homecoming whenever we come back.”

As a part of their Time Isn’t Money Tour, unsigned folk duo Less Is More will join Goodnight, Texas tonight for their first performance in North Carolina.

Hailing from Michigan, Jane Finkel and Brian Spencer have been singing and writing together since meeting in a college a cappella group. The band is just over a year old. Finkel said songwriting comes easily for her and Spencer.

“Our music writing process happens so naturally,” she said. “We both have different styles of writing, but we have a good way of collaborating, and that has been there from the beginning.”

Finkel was trained in classical opera, and Spencer said this, combined with his rock ‘n’ roll influence and their past vocal experience, makes their sound original and complex.

Spencer said interacting with other bands is one of the many benefits of touring.

“We’re both really excited to meet the other people we’re playing with,” he said.

“That’s the best part about being on a bill with somebody else — being able to meet them and get advice from people who have been doing this longer than us.”

arts@dailytarheel.com