The historical landscape is littered with the career corpses of the close relations of famous musicians, with too few able to make a dent of their own from beneath the shadows of their forebears. Such is the battle facing Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, whose fine Rise and Bloom does more than acknowledge his famous grandfather, Pete Seeger; the album revels in the relationship while establishing a unique sound of its own.

Recording as Tao Seeger Band, Rodriguez-Seeger is clearly the band’s leader, taking on the lion’s share of lead vocals, writing the majority of the original material and serving as the lone face on the stark CD cover. It either also helps or hurts that he’s got that last name; raised in Nicaragua, Rodriguez-Seeger moved in to the Hudson Valley home of his grandparents as a teenager, finding himself on stage before half a million people in Japan after criticizing Pete Seeger’s Spanish pronunciation on select folk songs.

How that brought Rodriguez-Seeger to where he is today is a story best left for another venue, because this is all about Rise and Bloom, which isn’t just the work of one man, but rather a band, one which often sounds as though it plays folk and world music through the electrified grid of a city. Rodriguez-Seeger’s voice is an instrument all unto itself, brusque and full and forceful. Sharing vocals and playing fiddle, as well as contributing the song, “Wade on In,” is Laura Cortese, whose voice complements Rodriguez-Seeger’s well on tracks like storming album opener, “Sail Away Ladies.”

Six of the album’s 11 tracks are Rodriguez-Seeger originals, with reverential-yet-explosive covers of his grandfather’s classics, “Bring ‘Em Home” and “Well May the World Go,” the latter featuring the distinctive harmonica of Blues Traveler’s John Popper.—Crispen Kott

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