Look, at this point the Pacific Northwest - not to mention the current pop landscape in general - is choked with folk-rock revivalists. Bands like Mumford & Sons, the Lumineers and even American Idol winners (good lord, Phillip Phillips) have taken to appropriating folk and bluegrass and imbuing with a palatable sheen. While I'm not enough of a scold to say that there's something inherently wrong with this (appropriation is almost synonymous with pop music by this point), but it can get somewhat tiring. Joshua Powell and the Great Train Robbery aren't reinventing the wheel, in this regard, but there is something to be said for a band that sounds as vibrant as they are capable of sounding, even in this tsunami of banjo-ified pop music. You know what you're getting with Joshua Powell, but that's not always a bad thing.

JOSHUA POWELL AND THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY; Monday, March 3, Metronome Coffee, 3518 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.301.2375; 8 p.m., 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 4, Le Voyeur, 404 E. 4^th Ave, Olympia, no cover, 360.943.5710; 6:30 p.m., Thursday, March 6, The Swiss, 1904 S. Jefferson Ave, Tacoma, 253.572.2821