Patrick Foster reviewed a February 2008 Bowerbirds performance for The Washington Post:

Phil Moore and Beth Tacular both said they were feeling sick at the Black Cat on Sunday night, but if there was ever a band that could use a fever-dream state to its advantage, it's Bowerbirds. In its intoxicating set, the North Carolina trio of Moore (guitar, vocals), Tacular (bass drum, accordion, Autoharp) and Mark Paulson (violin, percussion) played a rustic nu-folk that evoked hazy, half-remembered visions of another time.

The Bowerbirds' songs were keyed by Moore's guitar and voice, which modulated to a faraway lullaby rhythm. Tacular's harmony vocals provided the accents on songs such as "Slow Down" and "In Our Talons," which drifted one moment and creaked the next, working on the subconscious like sepia-tinged 19th-century photographs. To get to that dream state, the trio combines elements of the Band's Civil War evocations, the pastoral melodies of Andrew Bird, the husky folk of Richard Buckner and a palpable desire to turn away from onrushing modern life. Moore's weary vocals stir that cocktail wonderfully on Bowerbirds' full-length debut, "Hymns for a Dark Horse," and Sunday's show was essentially a near-perfect presentation of the disc.

The opener, "My Oldest Memory," set the tone for a stream of back porch meditations highlighted by "Dark Horse," "The Ticonderoga," "Olive Hearts" and "Hooves." One can't help wondering if audiences who see the Bowerbirds after they've recovered will be missing the extra degree or two of intensity. Either way, the hour-long show felt like an out-of-time moment worthy of, well, a Bowerbirds song.