You never know when a song will hit you. Sometimes you are prepared for the moment—new record in hand, tearing through the liner notes while popping an old standby into the stereo. But often the best discoveries appear completely out of the blue—walking into a party and becoming completely floored by an unknown track or seeing that opening band that blows the headliners off the stage, for instance—and it’s in these moments that you realize just how many great songs are out there.

Amid the hustle and bustle of Portland traffic, driving two teenagers around to soccer games and birthday parties and places I didn’t know existed in Southwest Portland, I stumbled upon an unlikely source for discovering Portland music: the radio. Not on my beloved KPSU, either; but a station I haven’t really listened to in years, since my own days of athletic non-triumphs and first kisses. Who knew they played the Old Believers on KNRK?

Much has been made (and written) about how two people so young can make music so developed, and, well, mature. “There It Is” doesn’t sound like a typical track from the under-21 set; Nelson Kempf’s deep and husky voice channels the early days of ego-maniac troubadour Ryan Adams, even breaking into an endearing crack on a few of the highest notes. Repeated listens only reinforce what really makes the song tick—Keeley Boyle’s perfectly placed backing coos, a gentle, guiding rhythm track, subtle xylophone plinks that enter on the second verse. Boyle even drops her guard and enters on the chorus, as the two sing about towns turning into cities and the inevitability of growing old. “My thoughts were heavy, they wouldn’t rest on my brain,” Kempf says as the song enters its final verse. Even zig-zagging across the city, you can feel the weight of that.

Download audio file (there it is.mp3)

Links: Old BelieverSpace

Photo courtesy of the old believers