A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Shenandoah Davis

(Tractor) A Hawk and a Hacksaw's newest album, Cervantine, treads familiar ground—if you've been paying attention to folk music, you've heard this Balkan-tinged sound before. But like the best music, it rewards you when you pay attention. At the edges of the music, they welcome in Middle Eastern elements, other European folk music, and even a little bit of Indian flavor. Those elements often gradually expand to take over the songs, bending them in directions you wouldn't think possible. Sometimes, as in the album closer "The Loser [Xeftilis]," flamenco and Gypsy music combine to twist the song into something that sounds like a whole new genre. This is world music, and I mean that in the best, most un-Putumayo-like way possible. PAUL CONSTANT