As modern-day musicians explore complex musical styles and techniques, folk music’s straightforwardness seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. In an era of massive technological advancements and musical possibilities, the folk ruggedness largely has gone unnoticed by the general public.

Here to change that is Pholksinger Josh, a one-man band consisting of singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Josh Rosenstein, playing his first show in Athens tonight at Tasty World.

“I’ve been playing guitar since fifth grade, so about eight or nine years, and harmonica since freshman year of high school,” said Rosenstein, a freshman at the University. “But I didn’t start writing good songs until 2004 when I took an outdoor semester program in the North Carolina Mountains.”

Most of those songs were featured on his full-length debut album, “Southern Dirt,” released Oct. 31. The album blends elements of classic folk with rapping, resulting in a unique, genre-blending sound.

Rosenstein explains that this blend is evident in his name. “A fellow singer-songwriter friend of mine started calling me ‘folksinger’ and I kind of liked it,” he said. “I chose to spell it with a ‘Ph’ instead because of the influence of hip-hop on my music.”

“Southern Dirt” was recorded in Roswell and produced by his close friend Gabe Klein-Kuhn, who Rosenstein cites as a chief inspiration for his interest in pursuing music.

“About two years ago, Gabe said to me, ‘Josh, you always talk about how much you love writing songs and playing them, so do something about it,’” Rosenstein said. “That stuck with me, and shortly after that I started playing frequently in coffeehouses and venues around Atlanta.”

Self-described as his “coming of age,” Rosenstein’s intentions on his debut release are clear.

“It’s the world through the eyes of a high school senior getting ready to go to college,” he said. “The music itself is very acoustic and sparsely arranged, with usually just guitar, vocals and harmonica, but many tracks add kazoo and hi-hat.”

The songs that make up “Southern Dirt” echo the styles of folk legend Bob Dylan in addition to American folk and blues guitarists like Woody Guthrie and the hip-hop inflections of Outkast and Snoop Dogg.

Fans can expect to see this mix of styles firsthand tonight.

“I’m so excited to be playing my first gig in Athens,” said Rosenstein. “This is probably the biggest gig of my young career, and I hope to use this as a diving board into the Athens music scene.”