James Elkington and Nathan Salsburg

“Jim and I play music primarily because we just like being around each other,” Nathan Salsburg told Acoustic Guitar in 2024 of his long-running but very occasional duo with James Elkington. Indeed, the two guitarists met nearly two decades earlier and became quick friends, sharing loves of British folk revivals, minimalism, and the indie rock that surrounded Elkington in Chicago and Salsburg in Louisville. But it took years for Elkington to suggest they try working as a tandem. They were, after all, busy, what with Elkington’s stints in The Zincs and The Horse’s Ha and Salsburg’s former roles as archivist for The Lomax Digital Archive and running an imprint for Drag City. Elkington’s ask, though, led to their 2011 Tompkins Square debut, Avos, and the more assured 2015 follow-up, Ambsace. While interpreting The Smiths and Duke Ellington, they flirted with the blues, drifted through pastorals, and, on “The Narrowing of Grey Park,” conjured Philip Glass with interlocking acoustics that seemed as if they could stretch out forever.

But life, work, and a global pandemic all provided another pause. Their friendship remained, but, for a while, that meant hanging out rather than recording their songs in Elkington’s attic. What’s more, Elkington was busy working on records by the likes of The War on Drugs and Steve Gunn while making solo albums, while Salsburg was recording and touring with the songwriter Joan Shelley, his wife, and making an incredible series of electronic records called Landwerk. But their 2024 reunion, All Gist, carried the easy camaraderie of friends picking up a conversation after time apart, offloading their burdens and joys with one another. From the mutual comfort of “Long in the Tooth Again” to the pensive and doubtful “Fears of This Nature,” Salsburg and Elkington sound candid and real in one another’s company, sharing their lives without sharing a word. They play a very rare duo show at Big Ears 2027.