Next time you happen to find yourself in a lush forest or otherwise heavily deciduous area, take five minutes to look skyward into the hanging oak branches. If you squint real hard through the leaves you may just be lucky enough to spot a family of bird nests. One such nest belongs to the North Carolina collective of Phil Moore, Beth Tacular, and Mark Paulson who make up the The Bowerbirds. Their debut full length Hymns for a Dark Horse is a serenely beautiful release that is just as at home in the woods as the band seems to be. You’ll know you’re close if you can hear the sweet sounds of the bird’s call and the gorgeous and simplistic melodies they produce.

Hymns is like your own private Walden Pond, your own log cabin. It’s your own shade tree that beckons you to come sit, tip your straw cap down over your eyes, and take a nap alongside the wildlife. And though this release certainly does call attention to our current “inconvenient truths” and the push for conservationism, it is not overbearing or preachy. It’s green simply because the artists who made it truly do care. Beth Tacular is also an artist who enjoys painting serene forested scenes and the band itself tours the States in a camper sleeping in the kinds of places that make their songs sound so genuine.

This band and these songs travel through the beat of “Hooves,” under “Bur Oak” trees, and among the “Marbled Godwits.” Nearly every song begins as a marital harmony between Moore and the acoustic guitar. Then the natural percussion gives the album a really tangible connection. Brash tambourine and thwacking wood percussion sound like those majestic oaks themselves are clapping their barked limbs together in time. Tacular’s folky accordion and some gentle strings breezing through the willows fill in only where they are needed. There is not an instrument wasted, nor added where it shouldn’t be in The Bowerbirds’ ecosystem.

In the second track, “In Our Talons,” Phil Moore proclaims “You’re in our talons now, and we’re never letting go.” That line gets more and more prophetic as the album branches out. If the truth can be told, though, The Bowerbirds strong, yet gentle talons have a firm grasp since the opening bars. As soon as Moore’s voice swoons in – that effortlessly clear and stoic call – it’s too late, you’ve already been seized. And throughout these 10 tracks, escape is easy. All you have to do is get up and walk away. The shade tree, the tranquil pond, and The Bowerbirds’ irresistible song, however, is just too hard to leave behind.