He is also an amazingly versatile writer. Without imitating, he consistently creates new songs that seem to have the timeless quality of the best traditional songs. While he often works with subjects that are familiar in traditional songs, there is always a twist. Just as The Band created music that was definetly based on rock and roll which echoed the South during the Civil War and just past, and Gillian Welsh and David Rawlings have transplanted the Stanley Brothers from Clinch Mountain to the Hollywood Hills and somehow made it sound natural, Rust Farm has created a sound so complete that it ought to have a name, but doesn't. There is an acoustic feel to the album, at times one of the finest blends I have heard of an acoustic front line, and a straight drums and bass rhythm.
Every track has something to commend it.