I Never Even Asked for Light

Unfettered by trends but unafraid of technology, Lullaby creates music with guitars, banjos, strings and the occasional horn section that, arrangement-wise, harkens back to Stephen Foster, but, in performance, has the impassioned immediacy of a great contemporary emo-core combo. The group, which can shift in makeup on tour from standard-size rock band to a motley chamber orchestra, began in 1994 as a duo with Mike Mogis, a gifted arranger and player of multifarious stringed instruments, and Ted Stevens, a guitarist and lyricist whose words are oblique but intense and whose delivery is deeply earnest and emotional.