I first encountered the music of Tim Eriksen by happenstance. I had attended a local folk festival and seen the acts I wanted to see. The remainder fell under the singer/songwriter category, which I generally interpret as "sensitive guys singing about their feelings." I'll pass, thanks all the same. I was on my way out when I heard some rugged clawhammer banjo playing coming from the stage area. I beat feet back to the main stage to hear the banjo player. Tim Eriksen, said the schedule. By the time I got there, he'd set his banjo aside, and was playing guitar. The song concluded with a bit of overtone singing. "I must look up some of his stuff," I thought. I left after his set. Arriving home, I checked my e-mail, and by some weird Jungian synchronicity, there was a message from the Music Editor, a list of CDs available for review, and Eriksen's Every Sound Below was on the list.

The recording is low-tech in the extreme. Monophonic. Single microphone. No overdubs. Just Eriksen's voice and/or instrument (one at a time: either guitar, banjo or fiddle). Single microphone doesn't mean that the music sounds muddy, like an old Victrola record; actually it's very clean. The nuances are heard clearly.

The songs are mostly old ones -- murder ballads, Civil War songs, obscure hymns -- with a couple of Eriksen's originals to round it out. Eriksen's voice is strong, and a tad harsh; perfect for the songs here. It's powerful enough to carry the songs sung without accompaniment, which Eriksen does on a number of tracks. He lapses into overtone singing on a couple of tracks; "John Colby's Hymn" is the best example, with overtone singing over a banjo's horse-like rhythm, sounding almost Asian. The guitar is often melodic, but punchy, after the style of Martin Carthy (listen to "The Cumberland and the Merrimac" or "Red Rosy Bush"). In the insert, Eriksen jokes about coming from a line of "questionable fiddlers." His fiddling isn't dazzling, but it serves to support his singing, and he doesn't hit any wrong notes, so I question "questionable."

The feel of Every Sound Below is intense, dour at times, and riveting. It's hard to turn this disc off.