Nox Boys frontman Zack Keim taps folk roots on ‘First Step’

says, “it was just me playing acoustic guitar, attending local open stages at Moondogs, etc. I was probably 15, 16, sitting and playing old blues standards but soon progressed to more of a folk direction.”

He eventually met steel guitarist Bob Powers, and they started playing together, evolving into the four-piece Nox Boys, but Mr. Keim has decided to put his trad folk side out there on his solo debut, “The First Step.” It’s the second release on the Get Hip Folk Series, from the Pittsburgh label run by Gregg Kostelich of The Cynics and his wife, Barbara Garcia-Bernardo.

“The first recording I did was down on an old tape machine in my parents’ basement with Bob on lap steel,” says Mr. Keim, who also works at Get Hip. “A couple months ago, I started revisiting sketches I had and sent the recordings over to Gregg and Barbara that I have been writing but never shared.”

“He said, ‘I’ve got these tunes, they’re not for The Nox Boys,’ ” says Mr. Kostelich. “I said, ‘You never told me you did this, Zack.’ I was in shock. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you did this?’ I had wanted to do this folk thing, but there were never enough artists to do it at the time, like in the ’90s. Now it’s coming around.”

“First Step” is infused with influences of early Bob Dylan (as indicated by the album cover), Donovan and Nick Drake. The album is just him and acoustic guitar, with Cynics’ guitarist and Get Hip founder Gregg Kostelich adding backup vocals on a few songs, and Demos Papadimas playing harmonica on one song.

“This album seems black and white to me. It’s stripped down, naked. I like that,” Mr. Keim says.

Part of that was on the advice of Mr. Kostelich, who knew how to get that stark sound.

“His advice was to keep the album minimal,” Mr. Keim says. “This record could have taken a Fleet Foxes direction, with heavy reverb, more experimentation. That was my intention with a few tunes like ‘Spring’ and ‘If I Could Only Believe Her,’ but when it comes down to it, I’m very content with what we captured on tape.”

Oddly enough, one of the hardest tracks to record was the “Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”-style opener “Alice,” one of those he originally recorded in his basement.

“I think my idea,” he says, “was to recreate the old recording I did when I was 16 with a more hi-fi approach. So I thought really hard when in the process of recording, but we eventually got the proper take and it became something in its own right.”

There were some comical moments in the studio, when the young singer-songwriter seemed to be overthinking things a With: Demos Papadimos, Tony Jardone and Tim Hulhern (Some Kind of Animal). Where: Get Hip Recordings, 1800 Columbus Ave., North Side. When: 7 p.m. Saturday. Admission: $15, includes “First Step” on vinyl or CD, and tote bag; gethip.com.