Barebones & Wildflowers is Rachel Handman, Stephen Palmer and Mel Paskell from upstate New York. They play a mix of mostly acoustic country-folk music that includes traditional music and some familiar covers from, among others, Norman Blake, Neil Young, and The Grateful Dead. Think of a well-produced back porch jam from the early 80s or an evening at the Grange and you've got a good idea of the album.

Handman is a classically trained fiddler ("violinists" I think they call them) who adds a lot of spark to the tunes and songs. The fronting vocals by guitarist-mandolinist-harmonica player Palmer are strong, elegant, and mellow, and a little help from Handman leads to some nice harmonies. Palmer's mandolin and Paskell's dobro are especially prominent as carriers of the American backwoods sound. My favorite tracks on the album are right next to each other: Norman Blake's pretty "Last Train From Poor Valley," and the traditional tune "Big Scioto" with percussion straight out of a Morris dance. There are several other golden oldies of the back porch as well on this album. There's "Friend Of the Devil" and Gordon Lightfoot's "Song for a Winter's Night," both sounding mellow and slightly grassy. Neil Young's "PowderFinger," also mellow in a more tropical way, is a little ominous as well. "PowderFinger" leads to a Palmer original, "Joey," a song about a mentally ill kid ("Higher than the moon") with a shotgun. This may have been more relevant closer to the Columbine shootings, but it's still a timely piece, given the recent incidents with snipers in the U.S.

A fine mood flows through the album, but the emphatic lyrics and electric guitar are a whole lot different from the slow whine of "Mr. Engineer" and the historical perkiness of "Little Sadie." The covers make for good driving music along country miles, and as a whole the album really is well executed. Recommended for woodsy people!

[Judith Gennett]