Josh Billings Voyage is beautiful and captivating from the very first notes. Eriksen's haunting voice carries most of the songs, however, the album also relies on the varied instruments that sit like ingredients in a pantry where Eriksen goes to carefully select what sounds he needs for each track. Banjo, fiddle, bowed glockenspiel, great fife and tambourine all mix together to make a perfectly hearty stew—each song is like a bite of some fantastic dish with sounds that warm the soul. There is something distinctly Irish in the well-proportioned melancholy of the lyrics, but while the album pulls heavily from Celtic traditional singing and songwriting, Josh Billings Voyage is rooted in America—it's in the banjo, the electric guitar and the twang that Eriksen often gives his voice. From the " Bonny Bay of Biscay" to " The Mountains of Pomeroy" to "Philadelphia," the album is a journey around places that are familiar, even if you've never been there. —Kathleen Broadhurst