The close harmonies and fingerpicking of Rube and Rake

"Personally, I think harmonies sound beautiful," says Josh Sandu, one-half of the St. John's-based folk duo Rube and Rake.

Sandu and Andrew Laite have been working on their close-harmony singing and fingerpicking style of banjo and guitar playing for about four years.

"It's the just natural way we go about curating the idea of what's in a song," said Laite, who added that he has always been a natural harmony singer.

Rube and Rake's bare bones delivery is both warm-hearted and accessible, yet technically challenging, but Sandu said he and Laite are up for it.

"Andrew is the best harmony singer I've ever had the pleasure of being around," confirmed Sandu.

"He makes it really easy."

Now, with a full-length album as their calling card, Rube and Rake are hoping to hit the road.  

"We're a very lean unit. We can go with just the two us, and we can go and present the music the way it's supposed to be heard," said Sandu.

Hear Rube and Rake's Josh Sandu and Andrew Laite talk with Weekend AM host Heather Barrett about Back and Forth. 

Do you have a new album of music that Weekend AM should know about for First Listen? Email us wam@cbc.ca and tell us about it.

You can hear First Listen Sundays on Weekend AM from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. (5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in most of Labrador) on CBC Radio One.