I could tell you how his voice has the same eerie quality Neil Young's can take on occasionally without him sounding a bit like Neil Young. Or maybe I could say when I listen to him sing I think of the world laid out stretched around me; an endless panorama of sights and sounds traveling in all directions and cutting across time and place. Not necessarily of this time but so current it breaks your heart while at the same time gives you hope of a better tomorrow.

I could tell you they sing songs about love, relationships between couples and between peoples. That their songs speak of dignity, respect, and the wonders of the universe; that they are by turn, angry, sad, happy, and hopeful no matter what they're singing about. I could say some of their songs sound country, some sound like rock and roll, and some sound like old time country songs like Sarah Lee's granddaddy wrote.

I could tell you all that shit we normally put into reviews and in reality I wouldn't feel like I'd told you the first thing about them or their music. It's too real and personal an experience listening to Exploration to simply dissect it easily with mundane sentences of praise or critique.

To merely say I liked the CD would be an obvious understatement; it moved me, it made me think, but most of all it involved me. For me that's always been what it comes down to for music to qualify as folk music, how it is able to involve me on a personal level that often escapes more complex arrangements of pop music.

That way I'm able to preclude those who would otherwise qualify as "folk" musicians because they happen to be solo performers who play an acoustic instrument but sing facile songs of cheap sentimentality. It also opens the door to allow music of a more complex nature into the genre based on its ability to connect with "folk" rather than what instruments are being played.

Although Sarah Lee and Johnny are all over the map musically they are just as much folk music as their solo performing predecessors were. Stylistically they may be worlds apart from the old Talking Union and Weavers records of my parent's record collection, but emotionally and spiritually they are among friends.

Listening to Exploration is not always a comfortable experience nor is everybody going to find themselves in agreement with all of the sentiments expressed on the CD. But that is only a reflection of the honesty and integrity of the artists behind the project and their love for what they do. Listening to this album is to be assured that the spirit of American Folk music is alive and well and continuing to grow and develop, just like the folk it speaks to.