When Philadelphia's band The Hooters had their string of hits in the '80s, most were unaware that they were listening to a folk hybrid, one that was energized by rock, syncopated by ska, and elevated by pop radio. Eric Bazilian's and Rob Hyman's act might have been famous for only a couple of minutes, but it did manage to re-introduce the somewhat ignored genre to the masses through wordy video hits like "All You Zombies," "And We Danced," "Day By Day," and even folkier amalgams like "Where Do The Children Go" (with guest Patty Smyth) and "500 Miles" (with guests Peter, Paul & Mary). A couple years later, Lauren Agnelli's, Tom Goodkind's and Bruce Jay Paskow's The Washington Squares perfectly mimicked Peter, Paul & Mary with modest commercial success, though Tracy Chapman and Bruce Hornsby were the genre's least folkish, most successful, de facto champions, coming very close to the category with a "singer-songwriter" status (though one could never brand them as "folkies"). With the relatively recent success of acts like acoustic, singer-songwriter, John Mayer, the door was left open for some of the actual genre's best to assert themselves commercially, such as Alison Krauss with her award-winning duet album with Robert Plant, or acts like Nickel Creek.

There is another smart act now vying for your attention and folk dollars. Donning their best Fairport Convention meets Ian & Sylvia (if they were born in the eighties), Josh Joplin's and Garrison Starr's Among The Oak & Ash contributes to the field with a self-titled, debut album that is very charming through all its tradi-tragedies. The pair mostly vocalizes in unison on some of folk's most famous, morbid lullabys, like "Angel Gabriel" (sounding less like a spiritual than an Americana anthem), "Peggy-O" (rocking harder than Simon & Garfunkel might condone), and song-bios on Hiram Hubbard (with its brilliant Peter Gabirel's "Biko" meets Melanie Safka's "The Actess" arrangement), and Joseph Hillström (a Joplin original on the plight of "Joe Hill"). "A lot of people think of folk music as something that's sweet and gentle, but so many of these songs are raunchy and brutal," Joplin stated in a recent press release. "These songs are about the human condition, and that's something that doesn't change."

An intelligent sequence finds Joplin's a cappella "Pretty Saro" introducing "All The Pretty Little Horses" which then slides into Starr's fifty second take on "Come All You Young And Tender Ladies," thus setting-up the album's clever, unlabeled trilogy on heartbreak. "The Water Is Wide" features simple, organic instrumentation that accompanies singer Starr's deeply involved but understated delivery; and Joplin's original "High, Low & Wide" becomes the album's commentary and conclusion on all of its prior era'd intensity that also mirrors our times: "I am but a shadow cast upon the road and we are all but strangers bearing a heavy load." In other reviews, this album's material has been called "brutal folk," but what Joplin and Starr created here goes beyond that, supplying a needed kick to a genre that, so often, has been reduced to little more than a "Kumbaya" punch line. Wouldn't it be interesting if folk punched back with a few more albums like Among The Oak & Ash.

Tracks:
1. Hiram Hubbard
2. Peggy-O
3. Angel Gabriel
4. Shady Grove
5. The Water Is Wide
6. The Housewife's Lament
7. Pretty Saro
8. All The Pretty Little Horses
9. Come All You Young & Tender Ladies
10. Joseph Hillström 1879-1915
11. That Long & Lonesome Road
12. High, Low & Wide

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