Set Em Wild, Set Em Free

when they appeared on (or in parallel with) the reak-folk scene a few years back, akron/family seemed like unashamedly retro, flowers-in-their-beards kinds of fellows. the biggest surprise is that theyre now a trio given the massive sound of many of the songs here, and superb ensemble-playing youd think would take an entire incredible string band. thats a fair reference point, because the arrangements dart between acoustic folk and 70s-style prog (when it still had one foot in the blues). theres no mimsy here, though, and certainly none of the listless strumming and a pump organ approach to folk by many contemporary bands: the guitars have a byrds-y fluidity, the time-changes are frequent, the percussion never lets this become background music, and the vocals often holler, rather than feigning delicacy with the default hush of ersatz-folk.