Husband-and-wife tandem Keri and Devin Latimer spent the early part of the millennium in indie folk outfit Nathan, earning plenty of acclaim in their native Canada and winning the 2008 Juno Award (Canadian Grammy) for best roots traditional album. They’ve formed a new band, Leaf Rapids, and their “Lucky Stars” debut is a twangy delight from beginning to end.

Leaf Rapids CDKeri anchors the 12-track release with her crystalline vocals and Devin holds down the bottom on bass, while pal Steve Dawson breathes life into the platter with his stellar guitar work. There’s a nice mix of originals and cover tunes on a 46-minute album that figures to raise Leaf Rapids’ profile considerably.

The opening salvo of “Virtual Machine,” “April” and “Everything in Between” is flat-out terrific, and Leaf Rapids also score with personal favorite “Healing Feeling,” “Gravity and a Ladder of Gold” and “Agent of the Night.” The album comes to a close with a sprawling rendition of “The Man Who Sold the World,” a David Bowie tune that Nirvana practically took ownership of during a 1994 “MTV Unplugged” performance. The Latimers do the song justice.