I have to imagine that being in the military keeps you pretty busy – what with drilling and training and being shipped off to the Middle East every now and then. It’s nothing short of miraculous, then, that U.S. Army soldier Joshua Morrison funnels all his spare time into another energy-consuming project – writing and recording some truly beautiful and evocative lo-fi music. Morrison’s songs, gentle melodies carefully picked out on an acoustic guitar and sung in his whisper-soft vocals, have an aura of precision to them that demands they be taken seriously. Encouragingly, the music lacks overtones of aggression or bitterness or any other emotion stereotypically linked with military men – it focuses on the dichotomy between Morrison’s dual careers rather than attempting to meld the two. Listening to Morrison’s music, particularly in a live setting, is thus a unique introspective into a man’s endeavor to confront his worldly fears and carve out a concurrent life of service and of artistry. With Cataldo and Jennifer Hopper. E. THOMPSON

Sun., Dec. 27, 8 p.m., 2009