“We’re playing Country / right on CMT,” sings Will Harrison on “Country Star,” the second track from this Lafayette group’s second album. Whether the channel would be up to actually playing their streamlined brand of classic country seems doubtful: this quartet, lately expanded from a duo (and not to be confused with the Seattle fiddle traditionalists of the same name) has a knack for making catchy pop out of C&W clichés, but their storytelling lags pretty hard behind. “Rodeo Queen,” “Tiny Town,” and the title track aren’t much deeper than their titles.

For about half the album, not coincidentally the half sung by the band’s better half, indie cowgirl chanteuse Fawn Larson, it almost doesn’t matter. Improving upon their self-titled debut, they’ve enlisted producer Terry DuPuy (Roddie Romero, Feufollet) to take them to the next level, and between Fawn’s fiddle and Will’s banjo, it all goes down as smooth as homebrew.

It doesn’t pack the same kick, though, especially when Harrison takes the mic, not only are his flat and wobbly vocals no match for Fawn’s, they lay the lyrics bare. “Tiny Town” and “Bad Wolf” sound appropriately wistful and winsome, but not because of lines like “all things must change / nothing stays the same.” And there’s only so much anyone could do with “My Heart Is Yours (Part II)”: “On that day she watered my heart / Then she removed all the weeds.” Then again, when Will quiets down on the closing lullaby “Lilies & Sparrows,” he sounds much more believable than his honky tonk badass on “Pink Hotel.” Maybe less shit-kicking and more soul searching is in order?