Wise Old Moon Album Release Show At Bridge Street Live

Hartford’s Wise Old Moon has a new EP out this month. It’s called “Factory Town,” and the band can probably legitimately say that a factory-town vibe has filtered into its music, with the ghost of the Colt Factory hovering over Hartford in its own peculiar way. Add to that the fact that the record was recorded up the river in Holyoke, Mass., a city with a similar story of 19th-century manufacturing glory days and lots of old converted mills to show for it.

Acoustic guitars, gentle vocal harmonies, pedal steel and steady-rolling beats drive the band’s music. You can listen to “Losing Speed” off of the WOM’s 2015 album “Don’t Take Off” to get a glimpse of what singer/songwriter Connor Zane Millican is getting his hands into. “My mama said right before I left town again, ‘Baby, don’t go down south. How long you gonna run away from yourself?'”

These are songs — rambling roots-rocking songs — about that uniquely American predicament of trying to wander and roam in search of the country’s spirit, trying to find oneself by getting gone. Fans of Dr. Dog will appreciate what this band is searching for. There’s a sense of the past, trying to synthesize tradition without being shackled by it.

See Wise Old Moon at Bridge Street Live, 41 Bridge St., on Saturday, May 12, at 8 p.m. $15 and $25.