The tragic virtue of folk music is its earnestness. That is, while honesty and openness are clearly good things in many contexts, too many songs about the need to save the rainforests or spreading your love around can quickly wear on the nerves. Raleigh's Bowerbirds, a couple plus a friend who have just put out their debut album, manage to keep the virtue without any tragedy. An accordion, a big thumpy bass drum (marching band-style), some pretty guitar that echoes into the far reaches of what sounds like a large space, and, most of all, the tone of voices twining like the paths of birds in flight shape these ten songs into unromantic yet loving paeans to nature. There's darkness and a sense of the warping power of humidity in the piano that needs tuning and, like their contemporaries Midlake, who work in a similar vein, Bowerbirds are at their best when they strive for slightly dissonant harmonies, as on the later choruses of 'Bur Oak.' In its strongest moments, Hymns for a Dark Horse evokes the pleasure of finding the right path in the woods, the sense of regaining control in the midst of the strangeness that is part of man's relationship with nature. -Hillary Brown