On a recent [Dec. 8] rainy night, the Yuletide spirit of harmony prevailed behind the glittering commercial strip of New Hampshire Avenue. A CD release concert was being held at the Silver Spring Unitarian Universalist Church on Oak Lawn Drive for the benefit of the Shepherd’s Table, its charitable outreach group.

At a little after eight, bandleader Russ Arlotta, guitar in hand, stepped before [the] audience... and introduced his Friends: DavidHartge (electric guitar), Paul Lojewski (harmonica), .....  Zan McLeod (guitar,... mandolin) Mindy McWilliams (violin), and Charlie Trapp (bass), [and Karen Taylor, (harmony vocals and melodia)]...

... [T]he CD’s title song, “The Road We Travel,” [was] a slow, relaxed piece during which the...  players swayed and seemed to listen to and enjoy each other’s music. [Russ Arlotta] wrote all the songs, perhaps best described as folk music that reflects the idealism of the late 60s and early 70s.

His lyrics tend to be wistful, about lost innocence, and range from gentle preaching—“A little kindness goes a long, long way”—(“Things Are Changin’”)—to a Zen-like message—“Swim your river with an easy stroke / Let the current take you on your way” (“A Better Place”).

The music of both “A Better Place” and “Spring”—his earliest piece (1973)—is harmonically complex and hauntingly beautiful, with a kind of vocalise counterpoint supplied by Karen Taylor. Sophisticated yet grateful to the ear.

Altogether this new CD should appeal especially to people tired of the tuneless strident voices accompanied by jolting rhythms that seem to fill the airwaves these days.