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At it's heart the Taos, NM group known as Bone Orchard are a folk band. That is to say, they play the music of the people and of the land. There's some clues in the instrumentation (banjo and mandolin make their presence know), but the real key is the vocals. The harmonic interplay between Carol Morgan-Eagle and Daniel Pretends Eagle is classic American folk music. Daniel's voice seems especially fitted to folk music stylings, there are times when he sounds hauting like the great Pete Seeger.
But this is also rock music, the electric guitar and drum work make no doubt about that.
Oddly enough this isn't really *folk rock*, at leat not as the term is usually applied. It's more like the strange cousin of folk music that grew up on equal parts Joy Division and Hank Williams. There can be no denying the country and the goth influence on this collection of songs aptly titled "A Romance of Ghosts". That's what this album really is: Ghost Town Rock.
You can hear it on the very first track ("Pretty Polly") and even more clearly on the stand out "Dancing with the Ghost of William Bonney". The country influence is the western side of that genre but the rock influence on the guitar skirts surf music, thus infusing the sound with an urgent otherworldliness. Marry that to the quiet strength and grandeur (the gravitas, if you will) of the compositions and you have songs to accompany the sun setting behind the Rockies as seen from the porch of a house abandoned before your grandfather was born. Lovely.
Promoters take note: if you're looking for the perfect band to open for (X side project) The Knitters, look no further.
Finally I have to say that Bone Orchard's take on "Wayfarin' Stranger" is positively inspired. I love this song and I can't believe they made it sound new again! Kudos.
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