As the Crow Flies

The old-time music trio known as Sheesham & Lotus & ‘Son are well known for their dusty and antiquated sound, making traditional roots albums that deliberately sound like ancient 78rpm vinyl from the 1930s. Multi-instrumentalist Teilhard Frost is one third of that trio and his solo album, As the Crow Flies, lifts the trio's lo-fi veil to reveal a stonier faced take on American old-time. There's no hokum or ragtime silliness here: across 14 tracks, the appropriately named Frost digs his fingernails into tough, earthy mountain music.

There are plunky banjo instrumentals, thigh-slapping harmonica hoedowns, keening fiddle tunes, and assured renditions of classic songs such as ‘Darling Cora’ and ‘When First Unto This Country’. Frost's voice is reminiscent of the scholarly North Carolina singer Bascom Lamar Lunsford, and Frost's dedication to his craft recalls similar long-gone musicians discovered on field recordings from the mid-20th century. Listened to straight through, this album can feel a little puritanical and it's a relief when the major-key melody of ‘The Marysville Burglar’ adds a little warmth. But there is a real feeling of immersion within a tradition throughout – as if it had been recorded in a remote log cabin Frost had built with his bare hands from trees he felled himself on some inaccessible hillside.