Folk Road Show would have made an excellent opening act for Monsters of Folk when that supergroup rolled into a half-empty Commodore a few years back. The band came together when local singer-songwriters Dominique Fricot and Pieter Van Vliet (Port of Call) hooked up with friends James Caldwell and Olaf Caarls (Long Conversation), and then began playing everywhere from living rooms to festival stages.

By turns skeletal and haunting (“What’s a Man”) and beautiful and bittersweet (“Miss Ohio”), the first thing that hits you about Folk Road Show is how accomplished it is. This is the sound of four songwriters who understand that there’s strength in numbers. Monsters of Folk disappeared after one record.

Let’s hope that Folk Road Show doesn’t do the same, because whether you’re talking the after-the-gold-rush majesty of “Sweet Redemption” or the driving, harmony-laced “Fernando Pessoa”, Fricot, Van Vliet, Caarls, and Caldwell are well on their way to earning the title “supergroup”.