At the center of that light is Chris Eckman and Carla Torgerson. They met 10 years ago as co-workers in an Alaskan cannery. Both guitarists and singers, they joined up to play together and stayed together. They remain together.

When they eventually returned to Seattle, they hooked up with Eckman's brother Grant, a drummer who added a volatile cut-and-dash element to their folk and pop sounds. Even though he left the band last year and was replaced by Terri Moeller, the immediacy of that sound remains.

Michael Wells came on early with the bass. Keyboard player and noise maker Glenn Slater joined in '83. He thought he'd only be sitting in once. In 1992, Bruce Wirth - violin, mandolin, lap steel guitar and vibes - merged with the Walkabouts. New shape, new form.

The band's latest album, "New West Motel," better captures what they do live as anything that has come before. Love, longing, loneliness and a sense of the outlaw, something in the shadows. Something you know is there but you can't quite draw a bead on. Still you keep looking, you keep listening.

"It's a diverse collection of material," says Eckman over a plate of chicken satay in a quiet Thai eatery, "and that's what keeps it interesting. We can't just be one monolithic sound, a one-sound band or one-sound album. We funnel together a lot of things.

"Maybe we tend to look back too much, to a more innocent time when you could get away with throwing almost anything together. Not a dated look, but a different esthetic. Like old Neil Young albums, an acoustic song right next to something really loud and electric. For us, that's the only way to do it. Anything else would be intolerable," he said.

Eckman does most of the lyrics and works out the melodies with Torgerson, then they bring the songs to the rest of the band. "Once we're in the rehearsal space," says Eckman, "nothing is sacred. Everyone has a say. It's a nice combination of democracy and a dictatorship."

As Eckman explains the band's dynamics, Torgerson laughs at a huge bowl of just-served peanut sauce. "Look at all this! Where's the bread?" she says. When an unasked-for bowl of rice shows up, Torgerson stifles the laugh for a moment. "Oops! She must have heard us asking for bread." Then she laughs again.

Torgerson's laughter is as warm and easy as her singing is earnest and from the heart and soul. There can be undeniable sorrow to some of her work, but at the same time she maintains a spontaneous delight in whatever is going on around her.

And for the Walkabouts there has so much happening of late to embrace. The band has long been expected to be the next group out of the Seattle chute, but mainstream acceptance, for good or ill, has eluded them. Yet they seem to be working more than ever. Eckman and Torgerson just returned from a wide European tour where they performed as an acoustic duo.

"I have new respect for anyone who does that. It's scary," says Eckman. "You're naked in that situation. The band is a security blanket."

"It's always a party with the band," adds Torgerson. "If the audience isn't with you, you always have each other."

The acoustic tour cane after a summer of touring Europe with the band. Now they're all back in Seattle for a quick two weeks to do a video for their second single, "Your Hope Shines," play a couple of shows and then head back en masse to the Old World.

"We have like pockets of fans in the States," says Eckman, "especially around here. But in Europe - Germany - they come expecting to hear certain songs, Walkabouts songs. They really know our stuff."

The Walkabouts are in an odd place. Their new record is a European release, manufactured on Sub Pop's overseas affiliate. That makes the Walkabouts an American band on an import label. Sub Pop in Seattle is only involved in getting the record in the stores here. The band is shopping for a new national distributor.

"Sub Pop and we have decided that we don't really help each other anymore," says Torgerson. "We've done three records with them, and they still don't know what to do with us." She laughs. "So it's time to move on."

"It's a bit of a frustration frankly," says Eckman. "We're not going to abandon the American market or anything silly like that, we're just looking in new directions. And we have a lot of momentum in Europe. This new album has sold in Europe in a month what the last one sold in a year here."

"We're not giving up on records," says Torgerson, "but maybe record companies. We'll always fine a way to do it."

"New West Motel" probably best captures a live Walkabouts sound better than any previous release because the band played so much of the material on the road before hitting the studio. Eckman says the recording is infused with a lot of confidence.

Still, the best way to hear the band is in a live situation. They play tonight at Milton's Central Clubhouse, and tomorrow night at the Crocodile Cafe. "They're not really record-release parties," says Torgerson, "after all the record is out. But they're something."

Celebrations then?

"Yeah," she smiles, Eckman nodding in agreement. "Parties."

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