Weeping Tile continues its independent bent but in a major label way.
The Kingston band -- whose successful debut album Cold Snap was recorded independently and picked up by Warner Music in 1995, where it sold a healthy 10,000 copies -- recently released their sophomore effort, Valentino.
But to frontwoman Sarah Harmer, Weeping Tile is still "a pretty smalltime band".
"Cold Snap was basically just a critical success from our perspective," says the singer-guitarist, who leads Weeping Tile at Lee's Palace Saturday.
"I guess our perspective is different. We keep everything close to home. We've done a lot of tours opening for people. But it was just in the last year we were able to pull in our own audience."
Which is just enough for the modest Harmer to give herself some credit.
"It feels good to have kind of hit the legitimate stage and play for people who are there to see you," she says.
Harmer, who is Weeping Tile's founder and principal songwriter, says the band -- which also includes guitarist Luther Wright, drummer Camille Giroux, and bassist Rebecca "Sticky" Gould -- were not intimidated when testing out new material for Valentino.
"I would be making lyrics up as we'd go," she says, laughing, "and just be thinking, 'I know there's a song in there somewhere.' It just had to come to the surface."
Nor was she nervous about Valentino filling Cold Snap's shoes.
"I was more excited, because we'd learned a lot from recording it, purely on the production end of things," she says.
"Ultimately, we ended up producing the new one ourselves.
"We're feel players, we're not schooled. The songs just came together in their most natural way. It was an honest representation of how they were written."
The moody result lays guitar-charged pop-rockers against what Harmer calls old country tunes.
"It may be less conventional," she says. "We didn't think about it too much as an overall concept. It's just a collection of feelings."
And because those feelings are Harmer's, is Weeping Tile her voice?
"I did start the band, and I am the only original member," she says. "But the essence of Weeping Tile is still there. I guess it is my baby in a way. But everybody contributes to the arrangement. We are a rock band."
