Wikipedia tells us that there are 6,477,798 songs on Bandcamp. If we conservatively estimate that each song is 3 minutes in length, then listening to the entire catalog would require 37 years. Five of those songs, about 21 minutes worth, belong to Donald and Jack. My advice to you: carve 21 minutes out of your day. One less check of the Facebook page. One less thumb through the Twitter feed. Sit down. Listen to Donald and Jack. You will hear music that is haunting and mesmerizing. The songs will lodge down in the cracks of your brain and follow you around for the rest of the day.

Donald and Jack are Eric Bartholow (vocals, guitars, piano, tambourine, drums) and Gary Hudach (songwriter and collaborator), two factory workers from Youngstown, Ohio. Their story reads like a sequel to the movie Footloose. According to their Bandcamp bio, “We work in a factory in Youngstown where the open playing of music has been banned and radios are confiscated. This is where we met and began talking about making music. Donald and Jack are characters in a story we created about a musical journey. The story was never written down, but the musical journey was made.”

The five songs on Sad Guitars, the first EP from Donald and Jack, were recorded in Eric’s bedroom in the summer of 2013. I discovered the EP one night as I tried to sample the music of each of my legion of Twitter followers. Yes. I actually go out and search for music to review. The tracks represent Gary’s first efforts as a songwriter. Eric has never played in a band.

Wait… The two factory workers with little experience creating and performing music are not supposed to produce songs that are this good. Maybe the zombie germs had finally devoured that portion of my brain that differentiates wheat from chaff. Or maybe I had lately heard so many boring, uninspired, and bad songs that anything even halfway good sounded like the Next Great Thing. So I emailed Matt Francis of Feral Conservatives and asked his opinion. One of the benefits of writing a music blog — OK, probably the only benefit of writing a music blog — is that you get to correspond with some pretty cool people. Matt assured me that my brain is still intact and more/less free of the zombie germs. His assessment of Donald and Jack: “Pretty awesome.”

Eric plays or sings every note on the EP. The instrumentation is minimalist by necessity, with a vague tinge of 60’s folk and blues. A sense of sadness pervades the tracks. The emotion begins in Gary’s lyrics and is conveyed by Eric’s straightforward, unaffected vocals. The most notable aspect of the album lies in the overdubbed harmonies. Eric may have limited experience in recording music, but he has obviously figured out how to arrange and record vocals. Layered over the sparse backing tracks, the harmonies evoke a Rust Belt version of the Beach Boys, what Brian Wilson may have produced if he actually had to work for a living.

“Sad Guitars” opens with a Santana-like electric guitar. We meet a soul who clings to his own sadness as he clings to his stringless ’66 Fender Mustang.

“Free Memories” is the track that went into autoplay in my head. Thoughts of past loves and loved ones become a smoky, edgy chimera of harmony and stark acoustic guitar.

“Broken Tambourine” is a classic narrative song, the story of a backup singer in a country band whose heart and tambourine are broken beyond repair. The track features a beautiful piano line. “The piano on ‘Broken Tambourine’ is probably my favorite part of any song I recorded,” Eric wrote.

I’m going to go out on a limb here: If Bob Dylan released “Broken Tambourine,” he would die under a hail of Grammy awards. So now I’ve compared Donald and Jack to both the Beach Boys and Bob Dylan. Am I crazy? I don’t think so. This is classic American music.

I corresponded with Eric and Gary over the span of a week. Their answers to my disjointed questions were honest and devoid of drama. Gary comes across as the dreamer, while Eric portrays the practical musician who has to make it all work. What follows represents extractions from multiple emails…

What is the process for creating your songs?

Gary: I usually play a demo for Eric in his home studio, and then he puts his style into it. We then go back and forth with ideas for the finished recording. Eric did the mixing and mastering.

Eric: To call my recording set-up a studio is like calling a hamburger prime rib. It is very humble. I use Cubase. Gary usually sends the lyrics first. If I see any potential he then sends a chord sheet with his lyrics. I take his foundation and try and make it more pleasing to the listener’s ear. “Free Memories” is a melody I wrote. “Lover With a Kiss” is not changed very much from Gary’s original melody. Every other song fits in between.

A few of the songs, I recorded Gary singing them to get an idea of where he wanted to go with them. I then change the key with a capo to fit my voice and lay down a rhythm acoustic guitar track. For the song “Time for You and Me” I didn’t even use a metronome. I just kept laying track after track on top of the acoustic guitar, which explains some of the tempo problems that song has.

I do have acoustic drums in my “studio,” but I don’t have a proper way to mike them. So every drum track on this album is me playing them on my Yamaha synthesizer using my fingers. I hate programmed drums. They always sound so fake to me. I also don’t own a bass yet, so those tracks are either synth or octave dropped guitar tracks. When you are on a tight budget you learn to make do with what you have.

Do you have any training, or does it all come naturally?

Eric: I have no formal training. I am completely self-taught. I started out playing drums. I got a kit from the J. C. Penny catalog for Christmas when I was ten or eleven years old. It wasn’t the greatest but it gave me something to learn on. I eventually bought a better set in my early twenties. I started playing in church. That is the only band I have played with. I have been playing guitar for about six years and keys for about three.

Gary: I used to play guitar and know some music basics. I asked Eric if he would sing my songs if I wrote any. He said he would, so I started writing songs. I started some of the songs as a poem and then added the music. This was in May of 2013. I had never written any songs before. I wrote about a dozen songs and we decided to pick five songs and put an EP out.

I’m especially interested in the vocal harmonies. They are very good, and the arrangements are fairly sophisticated.

Eric: With the vocal harmonies I can hear them in my head. It is a strange thing. When I am listening to a song my brain subconsciously puts harmonies with them. I think harmony is what gives something special to a song. Just like a good bass track, it is the soul of the music.

What message would you like to send to Reverb Raccoon’s vast army of readers?

Gary: If our music connects with you in any way, we want to hear from you. If our music isn’t what you’re looking for, that’s alright. Never stop searching for the sounds and words and feelings that will enhance your life.

Eric: I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to listen to our music. There is so much indie music released each day. Creating takes a lot of work and I hope at least on some small scale people have connected with the music.

Remember folks: Donald and Jack. You read it here first.

Sad Guitars is available on Bandcamp and CD Baby. Visit Donald and Jack’s Soundcloud page to hear early demos of their songs.

Join Donald and Jack on Facebook and Twitter.  Or email the band at donaldandjack@gmail.com.