When OCMS launches into a tune from its self-titled debut such as "Tell It to Me" or "Tear It Down," the latter a ragtime-tinged bit of country blues, it plays so hard you almost expect its instruments to disintegrate. Critter Fuqua's ballad "Big Time in the Jungle" tells the tale of a Vietnam draftee that parallels the current situation in Iraq, while Ketch Secor's "Hard to Tell" is a knuckle-busting hoedown with a lightning-fast, tongue-twisting lyric. The band is as tight as any bluegrass outfit you can name, but it has a sloppy power that makes its performances sound as if they are about to spin wildly out of control. The production by David Rawlings, Gillian Welsh's partner, captures this manic spirit without any obvious studio trickeration, proving once again the timeless appeal of real folk music.