Here’s a novel idea: take five talented musicians, set up shop in a cavernous old Civil War hall in central Massachusetts, pick a batch of your favorite tunes written by New Englanders, and start the tape rolling. Eschewing a formal studio and gimmicky nuisances like overdubs, multiple takes, and isolation booths, that’s exactly what singer/songwriter Mark Erelli did over the course of three days in May last year. That the approach works so handsomely tells you something about both this 27-year-old neo-folkie’s raw, budding talent and his smarts for knowing his strengths: a supple, emotionally direct voice, an instinctive feel for flavorful, acoustic-based arrangements, and a relaxed storytelling style. Among well-done covers of tunes written by such local luminaries as Dennis Brennan ("Theresa"), Bill Morrissey ("Summer Night"), and the Lonesome Brothers’ Jim Armenti ("Every Goodbye"), Erelli weaves in traditional songs and poetry from the Civil War era that give the work a haunting thematic heft. "Ichabod," a chilling meditation based on a Civil War poem by John Greenleaf Whittier, is the disc’s darkly elegant showpiece: it rustles ghosts and then carries them on gusts of Kevin Barry’s electric guitar into the midnight of memory.