Querencia is an untranslatable Spanish word that roughly means the place where you are your most authentic self — an apt title for the debut album of a band that is as difficult to define as A Brief View of the Hudson. Canadian Nicholas Nace and Texan Ann Enzminger met at a drama school on New York City’s Upper West Side, but were both quickly seduced away from their Broadway dreams by the twang of acoustic guitars and the somewhat-less-polished East Village art scene. More than a decade later, A Brief View of the Hudson has performed from their vast songbook, with no exaggeration, close to 1,000 times on stages dotting the New York region and spanning Europe from Madrid to London on an international tour. Ann and Nick have mastered the juxtaposition of the seemingly unrelatable, bringing salty and sweet harmonies to life in a way that has the audience toe-tapping and bouncing in their seats long before realizing they’re singing along to lyrics that explore the darker themes of death and misfortune. With Querencia, A Brief View of the Hudson offers 14 acoustic-driven tracks that for the first time have Ann and Nick backed up by a full band and an array of talented guest musicians on the banjo, cello, organ, trumpet, saxophone, clarinet and piano. The recording of this album pulled together resources from across North America, beginning in a barn in picturesque upstate New York where the initial tracking was done at Art Farm Recording. Most of the vocals were recorded closer to home, at a voiceover studio in New York City on a floor landlorded by Bobby McFerrin's manager. Other studios on the floor are occupied by the likes of jingle writers and The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, whose son would occasionally wander in to pet the engineer’s dog. Horns were done in a steamy loft in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick and the band boarded an international flight to Canada to put the finishing touches on the album at the highly-acclaimed House of Miracles in Cambridge, Ontario. The word Querencia can also mean the area of the bull-ring where the bull makes his stand. After a decade of making music together, this album is truly A Brief View of the Hudson's Querencia.