In Our Talons: The Bowerbirds

Bowerbirds were born of the natural surroundings in the rural Carolinas and with song titles like "Bur Oak," "Hooves," "In Our Talons" and "Olive Hearts," the trio wears their organic sound on their (album) sleeves. "A lot of the songs feel more like praise songs to me," frontman Phil Moore says. "Praising what is still wild in and around us."Serving as a sort of field guide of contemporary folk, Bowerbirds' 2007 album "Hymns for a Dark Horse" is a collection of raw recordings complete with breaths, sticks clicking on drum edges and the sounds of fingers sliding over frets left in the mix. Utilizing a bass drum, tamborine and mallet as the only traditional percussive elements, multi-instrumentalists Mark Paulson and Beth Tacular build their structures instead around Moore's meandering vocals, breezy guitar lines and poetic verse like "There's a rusty prick in the tall grass/Where the barbed wire waits/ for a blind horse in a gallop and its sealed and sudden fate/There is hate in the grip of our human hands" (from "Human Hands"). The tunes are further accented with deftly restrained accordion, piano, violin, vocoder and upright bass.Following the 'Birds January signing to the Austin, TX based label Dead Oceans, the release of an expanded version of "Hymns" is planned for later this year. As the Bowerbirds got ready to set off on tour Feb. 23 with labelmates Phosphorescent and a quartet of South By Southwest performances, Moore took time out to discuss the band's history and future.