There are moments on Deer Tick’s third album that call up memories of country-rock’s ragged early days, when Neil Young haunted Topanga Canyon and the Flying Burrito Brothers sailed high across the Mojave. But The Black Dirt Sessions is more than a rehash of ’70-era sounds. With newly recruited guitarist Ian O’Neil in tow, the band sheds some of the antique gilding of their first two releases in favor of a loosely strung alt-rock approach. McCauley applies his pinched, whisky-scorched voice to lyrics steeped in longing and regret — “Goodbye, Dear Friend” and “Piece By Piece and Frame By Frame” carry an especially potent emotional kick. The rolling groove of “Mange” and the ghostly jazz slink of “Blood Moon” are laden with furtive menace, while “Twenty Miles” is a road anthem bathed in chiming chords. The weird, anguished “Christ Jesus” closes the album with a desperate plea for deliverance. McCauley and company acknowledge their roots on The Black Dirt Sessions, then move beyond them to stake out idiosyncratic territory all their own.