“Hither and Tither” sounds old. If not for the absence of scratchiness so prevalent on vinyl, you might think someone lifted a 1930s blues/folk record from the Smithsonian Library.

But “Hither and Tither” is a collection of 12 finger-style blues songs sung live into a modern mic or two by Portland resident Micah Blue Smaldone. Smaldone switches between a national guitar, acoustic 12-string and 6-string guitars, and what sounds like a resonator or banjo ukulele. He keeps his thumb a’ thumping those bass notes, picking and rolling out the melodies with his other fingers on most songs, as is common in this style of blues. The effect is pleasant enough, but Smaldone is copping an era—it’s a pastiche, but seemingly without the irony.

 Smaldone’s warbling, nasal voice is a bit of an acquired taste, which makes instrumental tunes like “Tatterdemalion Stomp” stand out. It’s is a peppy up-tempo number, complete with a shoe tapping, jumpy beat perfect for the national guitar with it’s tinny, mid-rangy sound. It’s got a hair of an eastern European, almost Django-inspired feel in there, as does much of the album, that lends a darkness to the material. If Tim Burton ever needs some dark bluesy folk, he should look up Micah Blue Smaldone. Similarly, “Summer Winterbelle” could be a Dresden Dolls song—if Amanda Palmer took up finger-style guitar—with it’s sarcastic sounding, thumb picked, oom-pah intro.

But most of the emotional depth comes from the vibe of the recording and this blues style’s already rich history. Smaldone’s lyrics ring a little hollow with their anachronisms. Phrases like “a-courtin’ ” from “Sporting Sorrow Blues” and “for to mourn” on “More Than I Can Bear” appear all over the record and make the songs feel like an exercise in a genre instead of songs that are personal and relevant to Smaldone. It remains to be seen if this contribution to the style will be lasting, or just a fairly interesting period piece.