Sometimes, even in our thoroughly mobile century, you can still make out a geographical place of origin in a band’s music — or places, in the case of the Belleville Outfit. Guitarist-singer Rob Teter, piano player Connor Forsyth and drummer Jonathan Konya started the band in New Orleans, before migrating to Austin and picking up fiddler-singer Phoebe Hunt, guitarist-singer Marshall Hood and bassist Nigel Frye, who’s a new addition since their 2009 album
Time to Stand. And sure enough, that 13-song set breezes through Big Easy jazz, Western swing and Texas country — mostly original material — with no shortage of modern, youthful exuberance. The sextet members toy with time signatures and get in as many instrumental licks as they can in their song intros, and their playing has the fancy-free feeling of not being beholden to tradition.
— Jewly Hight