The surprise about Pocket Full of Holes is that it doesn’t fall for the trap that capture most folk bands–the music actually has some variance. On their debut album, John Wort Hannam and the Sound Merchants produce a handful of honest, sentimental songs with a wide range of emotions, themes and sounds that are a pleasure to listen to. This CD is an imaginative romp of old-style storytelling that spans from the Channel Islands to the Canadian West. Hannam’s self-described “blue collar roots music” attempts to speak for the rural working class in a presentation that appeals to the masses with a unique fusion of styles from Celtic, to country, to folk.