It’s 2 p.m. on a Monday in New York, and through the window of Blake Christiana’s apartment you can hear the chirping of birds, the din of traffic and what can only be the hysteric cacophony of thousands of piglets trampling madly down the sidewalk.

“I live above a daycare in Brooklyn, and every couple of hours the kids come out,” Christiana explains with a sigh. “They start to holler and they make me a little mad.”

As the singer and songwriter of roots rock outfit Yarn, Christiana isn’t really known for his cheeriness. Even without the screaming kids, chances are he’d still be moping around under his own private raincloud, 70-degree November weather be damned. But that curmudgeonly slant is part of what makes Yarn’s music so charmingly complex. Over sunny-day country shuffles, major-chord singalong choruses and ripping honkytonk riffs, Christiana croons plaintively about all things sour and sad. If he mentions love, it’s love unrequited; if he mentions a marriage, it’s a broken one. It’s a rich juxtaposition, if not an altogether happy one. But happiness, says Christiana, is overrated, at least when it comes to songwriting.

“If you’re happy and content, what the hell have you got to write about?” he says with a chuckle. “If you’re walking down the street whistling, why bother to pick up a guitar? I just don’t have any bright lyrics these days, but hopefully soon.”

Christiana does indeed have a thing or two to smile about. Since Yarn released its debut album in 2007, the band has been puddle-jumping from one career highlight to the next, from charting on the Americana Music Association’s Top 40 to performing live on National Public Radio’s Mountain Stage to making an appearance on the Grammy ballot.

 Along the way, Yarn picked up its share of acolytes, including Edie Brickell, banjo virtuoso Tony Trischka and Caitlin Cary of Whiskeytown fame, all of whom made cameos on the band’s 2008 sophomore release, Empty Pockets.

“When I started writing this music, I felt like there was something special going on, but I wasn’t sure how well it was going to take off. Luckily, it did better than I assumed,” Christiana says. “It’s totally an honor, for sure, to get some of the recognition that we got, but we’ve got a long way to go. I just kind of take it with a grain of salt at this point.”

Christiana says the band already has a third album in the can, one that explores the more electric side of Yarn’s songwriting, which to this point has borrowed evenly from Gram Parsons, Ryan Adams and (Christiana insists) Jerry Garcia, if only from his string band side projects. The album will be mixed this month for release in 2010, label pending.

Given Yarn’s success thus far, might the 33-year-old Christiana be feeling a little more optimistic about the future? 

“I think there might be some positive lyrics on the new record,” he says coyly. “We’ll see.”  –Jeff Royer