BURLAP TO CASHMERE

Burlap to Cashmere

[Essential/Jive]

A breakout band on the contemporary Christian music scene thanks to their 1998 debut release Anybody Out There?, the folk-rockers in Burlap to Cashmere went on to win two Dove awards before going on hiatus in 2001. Drummer Theodore Pagano found unlikely acclaim as an interior designer, while guitarist John Philippidis was left in a month-long coma after a road-rage altercation in 2005. Philippidis re-taught himself to play and started working once again with frontman and banjoist Steven Delopoulos (Philippidis’ cousin) on new material, eventually roping Pagano back into the fold. The band has now positioned itself as an acoustic combo in the same territory as the Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons, and although their music lacks the urgency of those raucous acts, the soaring harmonies and exotic interplay of Delopoulos and Philippidis on this self-titled effort—particularly on the dazzling “Orchestrated Love Song”—offers its own special brand of uplift. –Jesse Thompson