By Eric Shea

'SOMEONE ONCE TOLD me that he thought our music was 'completely nonthreatening.' Like that was supposed be some kind of criticism,' " Gavin Toler says, exhaling a cloud of smoke from the corner of his boyish grin. "But his saying that made me wonder if he in fact felt threatened by us in some way. Like maybe we drew something out of him," the guitarist and singer for the Bay Area-based Winter Flowers adds.

There is definitely something uncommon about this folk band. For starters, they all dress with an eccentric flair that's reminiscent of Oliver!, the 1968 musical film version of Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. Each member of the band blends a fey, British-schoolboy style with '70s patchwork-denim cool: flowing scarves, pointy leather boots, wispy long hair, suede capes, medallions, and small leather satchels worn at the hip. The members of Winter Flowers also look a little like renaissance-rockers Fairport Convention – which is appropriate, since the floating, harmony-laden acoustic songs of Winter Flowers call to mind the British electric--folk revival.

More unique is the fact that the three singer-songwriters, three musical romantics with the same unusual vision for a quasi-medieval folk-rock hybrid, actually found one another in San Francisco. All three grew up listening to acoustic songs rooted in bygone musical traditions. All three played in abrasive hardcore bands. And all three returned to their roots before forming their current group. Sitting cross-legged while twisting the pegs of a six-string acoustic bass, Michael Talbott says, "We lucked out. I think what we play definitely has something to do with what we listened to growing up. A lot of kids' parents just have old Beatles records."

Talbott's love of folk music began at a young age. He grew up with a father who was passionate enough about British folk to take his then-four-year-old son out to Richard Thompson shows. "My dad was a total folk-revival junkie, and he had every Steeleye Span and Nick Drake record when I was five," Talbott recalls. "Also, Gavin and Chad [Peterson] both grew up around people who sang traditional music to them when they were little."

Toler and Peterson were both raised on Bainbridge Island, a half-hour ferry ride from Seattle. They have vivid childhood memories of spotting each other on the ferries going to and from school and of the music that provided the soundtrack to their lives at that time. "I was exposed to a lot of cool old albums," Toler says. "My mom was into folk and dark gospel songs. I remember them sounding both really beautiful and sad. And I guess that's kind of what I like to put in Winter Flowers songs – a melancholic beauty that retains some rooted earthiness."

Toler and band pen songs of a particular type: ascending and descending arrangements that blanket melodies in fantastical narratives and three-part falsetto harmonies. Locally, the year-old band have already begun to build a reputation as fantasy rockers. Although that perception is a bit exaggerated, it hasn't worked against them. Curiosity inspired Los Angeles-San Francisco-Nashville musician Christof Certik (who has played with Benjamin Kitestring, Wandering Stars, and the Brian Jonestown Massacre) to check out the group, and he recently became a temporary fourth member, filling in on mandolin and various woodwind instruments. A live show at Cafe du Nord caught the ears and eyes of Court and Spark guitarist Scott Hirsch, who is currently finishing the recording and production of a forthcoming Winter Flowers three-song EP.

"At first my fascination with them was that they just had to be a band because they looked so cool," Hirsch says. "But then you hear the music they play together, and it is so beautifully inspired and focused, and you wonder how they all arrived simultaneously on the same musical plane. It's like they all ran into each other on the street and instantly formed a band."

Hirsch, whose own band has rootsy (albeit Americana-based) influences, recalls meeting Talbott on the shared bill of an all-ages show. "The show was with Talbott's old band years before he was in John the Conqueror or Winter Flowers. They were called Angel Assassins," he recalls. "I think that our previous explorations with music carry directly into our current bands' discoveries. We all got better at playing our instruments, and we all seemed to realize that you could make a much bigger noise by playing a lot less – by playing with a little finesse and soul. But we can still talk endlessly about certain obscure 7-inch singles and laugh about all the funny basement shows we used to play all over the country."

Now recording and performing under her own name after fronting the acclaimed Tarnation, Paula Frazier has asked Winter Flowers to open for her on several occasions. "They aren't a rehash band, but they have that comfortable sound," she says. "I can hear influences, but their songs' melodies are unique. To me, their music is timeless."

Talbott is forthright about his band's interest in the past. "There is a definite continuity and tone to a lot of the music that I prefer, especially when it comes to older recordings," he says. "But that's not to say that we only appreciate old records. And I can't help but notice that the styles of some of those old records are becoming sort of popular again."

"That's so true, man," Toler says. "Anything seems possible after the success of the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? Look at what it did: bluegrass, gospel, and folk music are suddenly making sense to people who watch VH1."

"Yeah, and even the folklore of those older songs is seeping into the mainstream with movies like Lord of the Rings," Peterson adds.

At any Winter Flowers show, references to wizards and hobbits are all too often bounced around the audience. Toler clarifies: "We're not really into Dungeons and Dragons, man. We don't sing about griffins or the slaying of anything at all."

"That's just something that people put upon us. It's like their way of labeling us," Talbott says.

"I do, however own a cape," Peterson admits. "But all we want to do is lead the children back to the woodland wilderness."