Individually known as Dar Williams, Lucy Kaplansky, and Richard Shindell, this brilliant trio has joined to create a compilation of songs celebrating the obscure. Aside from the first and last tracks — a great rendition of R.E.M.’s classic tell tale “Fall on Me” and one of Shindell’s own, respectively — this album features the lesser-known folk artists of the ’80s and ’90s.

“I had a vision of an album that would cover the back roads of the United States and Canada,” Williams notes, “with all the gems by folk artists … whose work had been influenced by everything from traditional folk to post-modern literature.” And so it goes.

Cry Cry Cry chose material for this album based on quality rather than notoriety. Artists such as Greg Brown, Jim Armenti, and Buddy Mondlock aren’t households names but offer their own great talents to the style and are revered as the “roots” of folk by Williams, Kaplansky, and Shindell. Their admiration of these unknown singer-songwriters and their music spurred the group’s recently released self-titled album.

The concept for this project essentially began during a discussion between Williams and Shindell. The two aspired to create an album of their favorite songs by folk artists. However, the project wasn’t complete with Williams and Shindell alone — they needed another musician who shared their dream, and found the missing piece of the puzzle with Kaplansky. Kaplansky and Shindell had toured together, and Williams and Kaplansky hoped to work together one day. When the three got together, they realized that they could assemble their favorite songs as well as all the ones they wanted to record over the years. The result of their efforts is a great compilation of music that could put the U.S. and Canadian “back roads” into the mainstream of the folk genre.

Each member of Cry Cry Cry has their own great sound that has launched them to the forefront of today’s folk scene. Williams, a well-educated New England native, began her career at age nine when she began to play the guitar. Kaplansky took off for New York at the age of 18 to become a folk singer, only to wind up studying psychology, obtaining a staff position at a New York hospital and beginning a private practice. She left it all behind 15 years later when she decided to make a go of folk music full time. The lone male on the team, Shindell is a former seminary student whose first musical exposure came while playing guitar in the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band. Combined, their past experiences and perfect harmonies evoke the soul of folk music.

In the delicate acoustic of Ron Sexsmith’s “Speaking with the Angel,” Lucy gives a soothing calm to the song — something you want to hear as you lie in the hammock on a summer afternoon. Shindell’s cover of James Keelaghan is a touching true story that brings the listener so far into the story that you forget it’s set to music. With a hint of Cowboy Junkies style, Williams and Kaplansky team up in mesmerizing harmony for Buddy Mundlock’s “The Kid.” The Cry Cry Cry rendition of this song echoes a reminiscent reminder of Peter, Paul and Mary, a group that has served as one of Mundlock’s greatest influences.

The original artists covered on Cry Cry Cry are among the obscure but have been inspired by and even performed with some of the best musicians of our time. Sexsmith got his motivation from greats Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello. Robert Earl Keen, whose Shades of Gray found it’s way into the trio’s hearts, jammed with neighbor Lyle Lovett in his home state of Texas. Lovett and Keen used to occupy their Sunday mornings by serenading churchgoers across the street from Keen’s house sitting on the front porch in their underwear. Greg Brown, post-modern gospel singer-songwriter and author of  “Lord, I Have Made You a Place in My Heart,” worked with Travis Tritt in the early 90s and appeared on drums on Stevie Wonders’ 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life.