Moo! As we emerge from the darkest days of the pandemic, Loose Cattle, my favorite Americana cowpunks in New Orleans, are here to help us carry that load with Heavy Lifting. The follow-up to Seasonal Affective Disorder (2017), their widely acclaimed Christmas specialty album, Loose Cattle’s official studio debut arrives a whole decade after the band first formed. And boy, was it worth the wait!

The molten core of Loose Cattle—two-time Tony and Grammy Award winner Michael Cerveris and his partner-in-crime Kimberly Kaye—have never sounded tighter on their trademark close harmonies and give each other free rein when the other takes the spotlight. They’ve also got a crack team behind them: bassist Rene Coman and drummer Doug Garrison of the Iguanas and free-ranging fiddler Rurik Nunan.

Longtime fans will revel in live-show faves like Buddy and Julie Miller’s devilishly combustible “Gasoline and Matches,” Paul Sanchez’s sly May-December paean “He’s Old She’s High” and Cerveris’ own impossibly romantic high school flashback “Tenth Grade.” But Heavy Lifting is also studded with new originals and fresh reinventions that run the gamut of emotions from poignant to politically acerbic to just plain shit-kicking fun.

Vic Chestnut’s “Aunt Avis,” the opening meditation on “how to remember how to be good,” foreshadows the mournful waltz “Filling Space,” a study in human disconnection beautifully portrayed in an animated video. Clear-eyed as always, they step into today’s polarized minefield with Bob Frank’s “Redneck Blue Collar:” “Six pack in the pick-up and bait in the boat / Take ’em to the cleaners when it’s time to vote.” Elsewhere, they put on their stompin’ boots to trade he said/she said barbs on Mike Cooley’s “Get Downtown,” and create a hilarious mashup of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” with CeeLo Green’s “F**k You” that turns the pleading protagonist into an avenging antagonist. Now that’s empowerment.