Americana, roots and classically influenced country are cultural juggernauts. There are widely circulated magazines devoted almost entirely to covering various ratios of each style, a cottage industry turning out old-time music on microscopic labels and probably more preservationist leagues standing guard over our musical heritage than our landmarks and architectural wonders combined. America's musical roots are thriving -- both in new artists and in the respect paid to our forefathers.

That's pretty great until you realize that, save for a few notable exceptions -- freak folk, Southern Gothic, cowpunk -- there's not a lot of call to drag Americana into the new millennium. That's where New Ruins enters the picture. The band's The Sound They Make finds the Illinois outfit shuffling through a series of acoustic and roots elements to arrive at a sound that's steeped in Americana and roots-rock, but without all the sentimental ties to the past. Dabbling with drones and organs behind the lazy melancholy of the duo's electric/acoustic roots-rock doesn't hurt to pull the Sound They Make out of the nostalgia gutter and into a section of heartland all New Ruins' own.

In one regard, The Sound They Make works because its principals -- singer/guitarist Elzie Sexton and J. Caleb Means -- sound as if they grew up at the altar of everything from The Replacements to Bloodshot Records-era Old 97's: "I'll Sleep in Your House" is built off the same sort of familiar open-chord progression that's guided generations of back-porch strummers, and "Attic" plugs in for a chunk of roots-rock exported straight outta the heartland. What's more important to The Sound They Make than New Ruins' guitars and vocals, however, is the noises that slink around in the background: Chiming keys add shadows of longing pop melodies to "Nameless," "Records" makes use of layers of droning organs and keys without rocketing off into outer space, and "A Scribble" and "Ships" sound as if they were salvaged from cast-offs taken equally from Spiritualized, Modest Mouse and a dozen or so of No Depression's second-favorite bands.

New Ruins are a rare act with one foot in Americana's creative grave and another stomping all over indie rock's creative pulse. The Sound They Made's informed by our musical past, but is more than willing to write a new chapter in history books.