They say first impressions are everything, and it’s never been truer than here: the very first sound one hears on Marley’s Ghost’s eighth album is the low-in-the-gut twang of a Jew’s harp. Then an autoharp chord. Then a banjo. Finally a trio of fiddles enters the mix, and that’s when you realize what you should have known all along. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a folk album…and not “folk” in the Young God Records sense, either. Instead, we have all the ingredients of classicist American roots music — traditional acoustic instrumentation, “Public Domain” songwriting credits, and yes, what John Lennon once sneeringly referred to as “la-di-da voices.” And if that’s not what gets you off, then consider yourself warned.

Just keep in mind that there’s more to Marley’s Ghost than a “traditionalist folk” label could do justice. From the cover art by legendary underground comics progenitor R. Crumb to the production work by Van Dyke Parks, the man who midwifed Brian Wilson’s long-lost Smile, it’s clear that this band has a toe or two in alternative culture, as well. Most intriguing, however, is the sheer breadth of styles and traditions in which this quartet dabbles: there’s Emancipation-era message music (“Get Off the Track”), yawning pedal-steel country (“High Walls”), Celtic-flavored instrumental hoedowns (“The Girl with the Blue Dress On/Sally in the Garden”), even acapella gospel (closing track “Seaman’s Hymn”); all bursting with smooth musical interplay and sterling four-part harmonies. Nor is eclecticism the twenty-year-old quartet’s one and only skill: no matter what style Marley’s Ghost decides to tackle, they do it with equal amounts of proficiency, talent, and an effervescent sense of fun. Spooked isn’t some soulless, academic demonstration of traditional musical genres — it’s just great music by people who clearly love what they do.

This sense of vitality — the belief that folk music is music, not some abstract custom which must be preserved — is what makes Marley’s Ghost stand out from the trad-folk herd. They may bill themselves as a “one-band music festival,” but the effect their music conjures is actually much more interesting than that: the thirteen tracks of Spooked are like a whirlwind tour of the early 20th century itself, vivid and panoramic in a way only music could do justice. So while the distant past is certainly there in moments like the wireless-radio ragtime glide of “There’s Religion in Rhythm” or the Gene Autry-styled “Cowboy Lullaby,” the sense of life and humor exuded by this record could only belong to our present day. Who else would append verses about Zarathustra and Aphrodite to the traditional spiritual “Old Time Religion,” or write a classically styled ballad about a bizarre encounter with “French Elvis” Johnny Hallyday than Marley’s Ghost?

For that matter, who cares? We have now, and both of those songs — plus eleven others equally worthy — have officially entered the musical consciousness. Will they set the world on fire? Probably not. But that’s the nature of modern folk music: it’s about individual appreciation, not commercial or even popular success. Fortunately, when the music is this good, those kind of accolades shouldn’t be an obstacle.

Reviewed by Zach Hoskins