I can't possibly count how many times I've pissed in Lake Champlain. Not that I can count how times I've canoed or sailed on its surface, both praying for and fearing a sighting of its mythic, Loch Ness-ish beast, Old Champ. But every time I think of the eight consecutive summers I spent at a camp on its shoreline, I think of myself swimming naked in its frigid waters at 6:30 in the morning with dozens of other naked little boys, most of us leaving behind conspicuous pockets of warm piss.

This memory may sound crude to some of you, but to me it's among the purest, most innocent moments of a childhood long since passed. The feeling is perhaps better described in the title track of the Sixth Great Lake's Up in the Country: "We haven't got a care in the world except for each other and the ground we walk upon"-- or, in this case, the lake we swam upon. While this connection might seem dubious at best, I should also mention that Lake Champlain is unofficially-- and officially, according to Senate Bill 927-- the sixth Great Lake. Fittingly enough, this five-member band, which includes Jeff Baron, Chris Ziter and Sasha Bell of the Essex Green, recorded the basic tracks of the album in a house overlooking Lake Champlain.

While the Sixth Great Lake gain plenty of inspiration from Lake Champlain, they're also clearly indebted to the country leanings of The Band. For evidence, one need look no further than the cover itself, which resembles The Band's eponymous second album. But if you're not convinced, then I should also mention the Sixth Great Lake's excellent cover of The Band's "Rockin' Chair"-- yes, from that aforementioned album-- which approximates The Band's unique male harmonizing without forfeiting a character all its own.

But, as the Sixth Great Lake prove with fourteen other tracks, they don't need to cover The Band to make great music. The sublime opener, "Duck Pond," features beautifully understated keyboards and perfectly balanced male/female vocals during the chorus. "Across the Northern Border" follows, supplanting lead male vocals with lead female vocals. With its bongos and nimble acoustic guitarwork, the track pulls you forward from the laid-back position demanded by "Duck Pond." The soft strumming and harmonica of the title track then knocks you out of your Adirondack chair and all the way back to 1968-- albeit more the 1968 of Music from Big Pink than that of The Graduate.

Throughout Up the Country, there are hints of other musicians. The opening of "Last in Line" recalls Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line." "The Ballad of a Sometimes Traveller" translates Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" into the third person. And the flute-inflected "Cannon Beach" suggests that the Sixth Great Lake and Belle and Sebastian share a taste for Donovan. But this album is first and foremost an homage to The Band-- the kind that pays its respects by not only emulating the sound, but by bringing it into a whole new light.

Like any good camp memory, there's little here to find fault with. Sure, things sometimes become a little too airy, or reflective, or reclined, or soft-edged. But that's what you'd expect from an album as temporally displaced as this one. While too many bands, including the Essex Green, are rehashing psychedelic 60's pop, the Sixth Great Lake have resurrected of an oft-forgotten sound of the decade. Yes, there were the dirty mud pits of Woodstock, New York. But not too far from there was Lake Champlain, with its crisp, unbroken surface, just waiting for someone to piss in it.

-Ryan Kearney