The Poison Oaks began as a studio experiment for fiddler and side-woman Laura Cortese. Originally an excuse to focus on experimentation and the process of making art, The Poison Oaks have evolved into a full fledged collective including as few as four and as many as fifteen members. Raleigh based Matt Douglas is at the core of the collective bringing his distinct sound and writing style to the record. This fall The Poison Oaks will emerge with their 7" Pine: songbird vocals, triple tracked banjo, shredding guitars an indie rock folkestra with fiddle sometimes roaring and sometimes accompanying.

Although The Poison Oaks are a fairly new project their lead singer, Laura Cortese has been making music for the better part of her life. Welding the propulsive grace of folk styles to disarmingly open-hearted original rock songs, Laura Cortese is among the most intriguing and versatile, musicians in the bountiful New England post-folk scene. At home in any number of styles, her highly-visible work as a supporting musician (on fiddle, vocals, and bass) includes appearances with Band of Horses, Uncle Earl and - as part of Pete Seeger's 90th birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden - Patterson Hood and Michael Franti. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.