Few rock bands these days could put together a double-album’s worth of rarities and outtakes from the studio and the stage and come away with a set as stimulating, wide, and yet cohesive as this one from Howlin Rain. Howlin’s captain is Ethan Miller, who finds a diagonal line of entry in just about every song he creates; injecting a healthy dose of retro-psych goodness and enough modern conscience into his guitar-drenched forays that strike a perfect balance of benign bombast and bliss. Miller’s flanks of fuzzed-out guitars feeding off tubes running white-hot, the passionate, elliptical lyricism, and a studied sense of song construction- in melody and harmony- can, as on “Down a Drain,” echo ZZ Top and Crosby, Stills, and Nash in one fell swoop. Or tip the Grateful Dead on its side and roll out a reading of “Here Comes Sunshine,” that sounds first like tumbleweed tumbling through the Haight, then morphs into thunderclap power ballad. 

Miller has done such a nice job of compiling these 15 tracks, weaving in an organic through-line, that it’s easy to forget this is a pile of cuts from various sessions and moments across the Howlin Rain history. Two more covers- “Out in the Woods” and “Shine a Light”- from Leon Russell and the Rolling Stones, respectively, are revealing highlights, not simply as interesting tributes, but for the symbiosis with Miller’s own songwriting they accentuate. On the former, in particular, there is an especially gritty guest-showing from North Mississippi Allstars’ Luther Dickinson, whining and grinding on slide guitar.

This assemblage of fully formed songs fits so naturally into Miller’s impressive two-decade canon, it renders the metaphor of its title a preference rather than a problem. A bounty rather than burden. If this is what it means to be lost at sea with Howlin Rain, drifting back ashore surely can wait a while.