If you’ve been hanging around Fort Wayne over the past twenty years or so, chances are you know the name David Todoran & The Mobile Homewreckers.

These cats have been making music in various forms and with various locals talents in styles as diverse as pop/rock, Americana, and Byrds-y twang. Being a distant rural yokel and looking at the Fort Wayne music scene from a county or two away, I can say that the name David Todoran is one I’m familiar with, but I’m just now getting familiar with one of his albums. His newest, Apparition, is an absolute gem.

Todoran said this about its release, “Friends, Apparition feels more like a first than it does a follow-up to or culmination of anything that has come before: My first time blending voices with Cassie Beer and Lyndsy Rae Porter; the realization of a desire to draw on the talents of Gary Martin, Felix Moxter, Bill Mallers, Jane Heald, Ben Porter, and John Fecher to festoon tunes with deft manipulation of melodious gears and gizmos.”

Apparition feels more like a first to these guys. That’s saying a lot, coming from a group of musicians that can say, “seen it all, done it all.” This record feels like a crisp, fresh breeze from the early days of the alt-country movement, like the snow-covered streets of Minneapolis where the Jayhawks wrote painfully beautiful records like Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow the Green Grass.

From the 12-string chimes of the Rickenbacker to the ornate beauty of the pedal steel, David Todoran & The Mobile Homewreckers paint pop majesty through the jangle and swing of country melancholy.

Take album opener and title track “Apparition.” It’s sad and melancholy lilt hangs in the air like an early morning fog. There’s bits of early Wilco, early Ryan Adams, and Jayhawks that haunt this track, but with the Homewreckers unique Hoosier-ian twist. It’s a decidedly Midwestern slant in the vibes. Todoran’s vocals work so well in the Byrds-y range here, like on the soaring “Sweet Marie.” It’s refreshing to hear such pristine writing and composition.

Elsewhere, “Pictures of Angeline” recalls late-era Tom Petty, while “Elegy for J” is a minor key rocker that feels like a ballad of epic proportion. “Eveline” closes the album on an acoustic strum and night sky ponderings. David Todoran & The Mobile Homewreckers lay on the Roger McGuinn vibes heavy and with purpose here.

With production done by Tom Tempel at Tempel Recording Studio, Apparition is pretty near perfect start to finish.

So whether you’ve known David Todoran & The Mobile Homewreckers for decades or you’re just reading that name for the first time now, do yourself a favor and get a copy of Apparition. It creaks and sways in just the right ways.