There’s a tendency to classify Midnight North as a jamband, which is a fair, if not wholly accurate, assessment. Co-founder Grahame Lesh is the son of Phil Lesh, after all. Grateful Dead, The Band, and Crosby, Stills & Nash covers are regular parts of their live shows. And nearly everyone in the group has played with the Terrapin Family Band at one point or another. But There’s Always a Story, the group’s fourth album, proves that Midnight North would exist just as comfortably at the Ryman as they do at Terrapin Crossroads. From the opening (not-quite “Friend of the Devil”) plucks of the low[1]key “Wild Card,” the band asserts itself as a decidedly Americana act with a strong focus on songcraft. That’s always been there: For every 10-minute live jam, there was a country rocker like “Stayin’ Single, Drinkin’ Doubles.” That song—one of the group’s earliest—gets a spiritual sequel in the front-porch sing-along “Silent Lonely Drifter.” In some ways, There’s Always a Story, which takes its name from the opening line of “Wild Card,” is a vehicle for Elliott Peck, who trades lead vocals throughout with Lesh. On album standout “Good Days”—a breezy stunner with a mournful, nostalgic undercurrent—Peck reflects, “Lately, I’ve been losing people/ I wish that wasn’t part of getting old,” and her aching vocals are central to the country-folk classics “Give Away the Ghost” and “Coyote.” The singer also gets a chance to stretch out on the album’s heaviest rock song—and most likely jam vehicle—“Mississippi River,” which finds her laying down some gritty vocal runs. Of course, there are still some jambandy excursions. Horns enhance the buoyant, New Orleans-influenced “Earthquakes.” And there’s a slinking groove that drives “The Sailor and the Sea,” a reminder that no matter how far Midnight North drifts from the scene, they’ll always find their way home.