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There’s a trend among some of the South’s best writers — men like Chris Offutt, Larry Brown, Tom Franklin, Knoxville’s own Michael Knight — to release a book of short stories, a series of tales independent from one another but painting an overall portrait of grit and angst and the darker places of the human heart.

For Offutt, it was “Kentucky Straight.” Brown did it twice, with “Facing the Music” and “Big Bad Love”; Franklin released “Poachers,” and University of Tennessee professor Knight did it with “Dogfight.” Each of them went on to write excellent first novels — longer narratives populated by similar characters interacting throughout an overall story arc.

For the two songwriters of local Appalachian folk band Medford’s Black Record Collection, the process was done in reverse. The novel, or rather the full-length concept album, came first. This week, they follow it with their new record, “Eccentricity NOS,” a collection of individual songs that detail characters just as seamy and tortured and quirky as those on “The Flattville Murder Album,” the band’s first release.

While the Michael Davis and Matt Foster probably won’t gain the same sort of critical acclaim for their work as the aforementioned Southern literary icons, they have just as keen of a collective eye for detail as any songwriter in this area. And with added firepower in the form of drummer Derek Whitaker and bassist Clint Mullican, they’ve added some heft to “Eccentricity NOS,” a bolder sound that elevates Medford’s into the top tier of East Tennessee’s music scene.

“’Eccentricity’ came about from the absence of a plan,” Davis told The Daily Times this week. “It was the total opposite of ‘Flattville.’ That one started very organically with one idea that developed into one big thing. This one came from little songs we wrote that we put into a collection. There wasn’t a plan to write a collection of story-songs and put them all together; it’s just something that came about from the way our songwriting gravitates.”

“We thought about trying to do another concept album, but we didn’t really have enough songs that fit into any one theme,” Foster added. “A few of the new songs are about eccentric people, but that doesn’t mean they all are. Some of them just don’t fit into any category. We still think about doing another concept album, but we didn’t want to do that every time.”

Davis and Foster first met almost 10 years ago when both were in college; in fact, they both played in the same cover band — Squirrel Corn — at different times. But it wasn’t until 2004 that they started writing music together, after Davis parted ways with the hard rock band (Leptic) in which he played. Both were intent on getting back to the bluegrass, folk and old-time country they had grown up with, but they also didn’t want to lose the edge they felt drawn to through playing hard rock.

The result was “The Flattville Murder Album,” a collection of murder ballads centered around the story of three East Tennessee brothers during and after the Civil War. All three fall in love with the same girl, and sibling rivalry quickly turns ugly and, ultimately, tragic.

“Eccentricity,” on the other hand, developed out of the pair’s various life experiences, Davis said. In particular, Davis — who works as a mental health case manager with a local company, treating emotionally disturbed children — drew on former patients with whom he’d worked for several of the songs.

“I used to work with adults in Knox County who had severe mental illnesses and substance abuse issues, and it was my biggest overall learning experience, just getting a glimpse into what mental illness means to people — the varying degrees of homelessness, the drug abuse,” he said. “I never would have imagined how dark some people’s lives can get, and conversely how bright they can get once they start getting help and making changes.

“Two songs in particular come directly from those experiences. One is kind of light-hearted and just sort of scratches the surface, but the other is pretty dark. I like to find the bright spot in things, even if it’s about a dark subject matter, but sometimes there’s just not a lot to find, and you have to tell it like it is.”

Several of the more extreme people with whom Davis has crossed paths make their way into his songs — they’re not identified by name, and the circumstances might change, but the darkness that hangs over them like rain-fattened storm clouds is still there. As an observer, he sees those clouds and feels compelled to write about the ensuing deluge that they bring.

“Half of the time, I don’t feel like I have to put any effort into writing some of those songs,” he said. “They kind of write themselves, almost — sometimes, I feel more like a reporter than somebody who’s creating a song, just because they make such an impression. You don’t encounter anybody like the folks I’ve worked with anywhere else. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, something else happens.

“The biggest thing, for me, is switching perspectives and really getting to look at what life is like through their eyes. You wind up asking yourself, how would I handle that? — and it doesn’t wind up being as well as some of the people I’ve had the opportunity to work with.

“Until you get to witness it, you don’t understand how much of an affect mental illness can have on somebody’s life,” he added.

Davis is quick to point out that he’s only half of the songwriting team for Medford’s, however (“Foster is a lot more musically skilled than I am – you talk to him about music for a little while, and it’s not that he knows a little about a lot; he knows a lot about a lot,” he added) — and, instrumentally, he’s only a quarter of the firepower. On “Eccentricity,” the two get a boost from a rhythm section that they didn’t have before. With Mullican handling bass and Whitaker on drums (drummer Deric Dickens recorded the drum parts for “Eccentricity,” before Whitaker joined the band), Davis and Foster add a plethora of stringed instruments to the mix — banjo, dobro and slide guitar offer subtle shifts in sound that make for a richer experience this time around.

In addition, the added boost of confidence the guys have built up through countless live performances adds a surety to the album that serves as a centerpiece. No longer are the two taking their first tentative steps into the local music scene; they’re one of the driving forces behind the local Americana movement, organizing a regular “Americana Jug Train” showcase at various venues and hanging out with like-minded musicians Brendon James Wright, Sam Lewis, Roman Reese and John Puckett.

“We started playing with Clint about a year ago, and we got to playing with Deric through Clint,” Foster said. “To be honest, adding two more people had a lot to do with just being able to play certain venues around town. We wanted to see what it sounded like, and it gives us a little more versatility. We can rock out, somewhat, or we can play a coffee shop with just two of us.

“For ‘Eccentricity,’ there were a few songs we wrote that we had bass and drums in mind for all along. Most of them, though, have evolved and changed, and they’re still changing. Five songs on there don’t have drums, but we play them using Dave now.”

Mullican and Whitaker present a whole new set of possibilities for the future of Medford’s. After taking a break from playing locally so much in order to complete the album, the band is getting back into local rotation on a steady basis. The guys hope to hit the road regionally, and Davis and Foster already have enough new songs to record three albums, Davis said.

At its core, though, the band relies on the strength of its songs. Like those from the novelists whose Southern roots make their works resonate, the words penned by Foster and Davis elevate the music made by Medford’s to another level.

“A lot of people have commented that we’re nearly opposite on stage and in our songwriting style, but I’m glad we have that dynamic,” Davis said. “We’re in this together, and we’re able to draw from our two different experiences and takes on things to come up with some unique stuff. You put that in the Medford’s context, and we’re able to take that to a better place.”