Graham Lindsey FAMOUS ANONYMOUS WILDERNESS BY ROB O’CONNOR

One of the more amusing things about Graham Lindsey’s debut album is how many labels you can stick on it without capturing its essence. Lindsey, who was once a member of Old Skull, the world’s youngest marketed punk group, sings in a roughshod mountain voice that’s as much early Bob Dylan as Vanguard folkie Patrick Sky. He accompanies himself with a blunt acoustic guitar and a screeching harmonica; a pedal steel leaks onto a few tracks. His coarse delivery resembles the punkish sentiment of New York’s anti-folk scene — or, just as easily, the unadorned simplicity of early-’60s folk music. "Everybody Lets You Down" captures the world-weariness of Son Volt’s alterna-country, and he sounds a lot like Jay Farrar in the process.

Lindsey appears to be just as in love with the sound of old folk recordings as he is with the old folksingers themselves. Whether paraphrasing "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" or melodically tracing Dylan’s "To Ramona" on the tune "Dead Man," he’s at the front of a new wave of old-time folksingers — like Palace Brother Will Oldham and, at times, Beck. And that’s as close to a comfortable label as he’s likely to get.