Bowerbirds w/Strand of Oaks: at The Mercy Lounge (Nashville, TN) Tue. October 9, 2012

Bowerbirds w/Strand of Oaks

Nashville Scene Critic's Pick …

Because their elaborately constructed acoustic pop music isn’t idiomatic, The Bowerbirds get away with the naive tone that their examinations of rural life can fall into. The North Carolina group creates songs that often begin with Philip Moore’s guitar lines, which suggest the influence of such disparate idioms as Piedmont blues, John Fahey-style Americana and bossa nova. On this year’s full-length, The Clearing, the tunes begin simply and go hither and yon with disregard for song form, if not psychological density. Akin to the efforts of similar neo-folk groups such as Megafaun, The Clearing is expressionist pop that combines Moore’s oddball guitar figures with the rumble and drone of Beth Tacular’s keyboards. “Walk the Furrows” makes their case for the simple self-reliant life, but this is one more neo-folk group who could easily rein in the expressionist impulses and make simple self-reliant pop. 9 p.m. at The High Watt

—Edd Hurt