Nobody makes sombre sound more exquisite than Alison Krauss. She's come an awfully long way from her days as a teenage fiddle prodigy, as her glamour gown on this CD's cover suggests and the bittersweet maturity of the music confirms. Krauss exchanges her bluegrass fiddle for the chamber strains of viola on much of the material, including four songs by Robert Lee Castleman (whose "The Lucky One," "Let Me Touch You for Awhile," and "Forget About It" were previously popularized by Krauss). Castleman's compositions showcase the emotional intimacy and interpretive subtlety of her breathy trill. The yearning harmonies on "Wouldn't Be So Bad" (written by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings) and "Borderline" (written by Sidney and Suzanne Cox) reinforce the album's restless spirit of quiet desperation. Change-of-pace contributions by Krauss's bandmates are more deeply rooted in the bluegrass/folk tradition, with Dan Tyminski renewing Del McCoury's "Rain Please Go Away" and Woody Guthrie's populist anthem "Pastures of Plenty"; Dobro master Jerry Douglas leads the charge on his instrumental "Unionhouse Branch. " Few bands in bluegrass can match the virtuosity of Union Station's interplay, but the artistry of Alison Krauss transcends genre. -Don McLeese.

Joel and Ethan Coen have long established themselves as film stylists without peer: from Blood Simple to Fargo, their movies have never been less than fascinating, and there has never been any question that their films could not have been made by anyone else. In T-Bone Burnett, the producer of the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, they have finally met their match: Burnett's work in assembling a collection of pieces for the Depression-set film is as skilled and entrancing as the film itself. Despite the presence of Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Alison Krauss and bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, the stars here are the songs themselves, a host of traditional songs augmented by archival recordings. The collection is also a showcase for a host of lesser known and forgotten bluegrass masters: The Cox Family, collaborators with Krauss; Norman Blake, a sideman for Bob Dylan and June Carter Cash; country gospel group The Whites, who once counted Ricky Skaggs as a member (and who, here, cover the Carter Family); and young bluesman Chris Thomas King among them. All bring life to their songs, and the results are sublime-and, at times (Krauss and a choir's take on "Down To The River to Pray", Blake's instrumental version of the oft-repeated "I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow"), downright entrancing. Some of these songs can be found on Alan Lomax collections. If you enjoy this album, we also highly recommend the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music and Woody Guthrie's Asch Recordings series. -Randy Silver.

Recorded in April, 2002 in Louisville, Kentucky, Alison Krauss + Union Station Live is, surprisingly, the sweet-voiced fiddler's first live album. Unsurprisingly, it's also a marvellous showcase of radio-friendly, popular contemporary bluegrass: Krauss' dreamy voice, the most gorgeous in all Country music, impeccably supported by some of the world's finest musicians. Bill Monroe-worshipping purists might prefer a more hard-driven sound, but with music as ravishing as this it seems churlish to complain about the odd missing mandolin. With Krauss and co. still riding high after the crossover success of the Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, this two-disc live set features obligatory renditions of "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" (Dan Tyminski's showpiece) and the spine-tingling a cappella "Down to the River to Pray", here with Krauss' ethereal contralto harmonised by the men's voices. Elsewhere, much of the bestselling New Favorite album is performed, alongside a "greatest hits" selection of older material. Dobro genius Jerry Douglas takes a solo spot, but like the very best bluegrass this concert is a meeting of equals, and one not to be missed by any Country music fan. -Mark Walker.

A Hundred Miles or More carries the subtitle A Collection, and what a curious collection it is-cuts from soundtracks, side projects, and tribute albums, plus guest duets on other artists' albums and five previously unreleased tracks. In other words, this is a collection of Alison Krauss performances that have never appeared on an Alison Krauss album, though it holds together better than such a grab-bag approach might suggest. Highlights such as her duet with Brad Paisley on "Whiskey Lullaby" and her a cappella rendition of "Down to the River to Pray" from O Brother, Where Art Thou? will be familiar to most Krauss fans, though it's doubtful that many share her infatuation with retro rocker John Waite (with whom she revives his "Missing You" and duets on a cover of Don Williams's "Lay Down Beside Me. "). Other projects represented range from Disney to the Chieftains to the Louvin Brothers (she duets with James Taylor on their "How's the World Treating You. " There's minimal contribution from her Union Station band-making this a solo release by default-and little information to indicate whether the previously unreleased tracks were outtakes from earlier releases or recently recorded for this one. -Don McLeese.

John Boorman's film about four city-dwellers getting their comeuppance while canoeing down a doomed river through inbred-land, exercised strict authenticity through a virtual absence of incidental music. So the idea of a soundtrack seems a bit "spooky" to say the least. The film's mere handful of music cues are all variations of the innocent-turned-demonic "Banjo Duel". The heartstopping rushes down the murderous Appalachian river needed no accompaniment, but the banjo theme proves a simple, effective tool in psychologising the countryside. It expresses the ominous "something" in the river, it shows up the city dwellers' short-lived oblivion, and "mickey-mouses" Jon Voight's desperate slide off the cliff. Once again John Boorman showed audiences that less is more. In the case of Deliverance, buying the soundtrack will ironically hold the opposite experience to watching the video. You're not buying a movie soundtrack at all, but some nice country "geetar" and banjo tunes that have nothing to do with the film-the only way to relive the movie experience is playing "spot the evil" during the title track, "Duelling Banjos". Deliverance the album will be the quirky item in your Bluegrass collection. -Yngvil V. [+]

Having watched him throw away the prime years of his career on smack and prison, Steve Earle fans were reassured by the singer's 1995 comeback, Train A Comin', where he reclaimed the past in exquisite acoustic arrangements. They were further encouraged by the 1996 follow up, I Feel Alright, which staked out the present with rock & roll defiance. Their patient faith was rewarded with El Corazon, an album that no longer looks back at those lost years but looks forward to the rest of Earle's career. Combining the sheer beauty of Train A Comin' with the bristling energy of I Feel Alright, El Corazon ploughs new ground with Earle's most explicitly political song yet, his furthest leap into another character's voice, a hard-core bluegrass number with the Del McCoury Band, and a hard-core grunge rocker with the Supersuckers. Earle turns the Fairfield Four into the Jordanaires behind his Elvis vocal on "Telephone Road", and he imitates Townes Van Zandt's austere minimalism even as he sings an elegy to his late mentor on "Fort Worth Blues". All in all, these dozen tunes are the best songwriting Earle has produced since his 1986 breakthrough, Guitar Town, and he sings them with the take-it-or-leave-it authority of someone who has nothing left to prove. On the album's first and best song, "Christmas in Washington", he offers a mournful prayer to Woody Guthrie to come back and rescue us from an era of wishy-washy Democrats and ruthless Republicans; Earle sings it as if his prayer had been answered and the Okie troubadour's ghost had found a home in his belly. -Geoffrey Himes.

A poll-winning fiddler since her teens, Alison Krauss was an established bluegrass star when her label persuaded her to step out from her usual projects with Union Station, her crack band, and sanction this compilation of various band and solo guest performances. The ploy worked, yielding a wonderful, odds-beating crossover hit with Krauss's cover of "Baby, Now That I've Found You", a carousing late 1960s pop chant transformed into a delicate, vulnerable declaration of love. Focusing on Krauss's lovely, yearning soprano, the track elevated the musician above her resolutely democratic role in her quintet, catapulting Krauss to the biggest bluegrass success story in over 30 years. Krauss has stayed true to her roots, as well as to Union Station, but this cross-section of contemporary songs, joyous gospel and canny rock covers testify to the young artist's luminous appeal. -Sam Sutherland.

New Favorite is the first album released by Alison Krauss and Union Station since their role in the megahit soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?-an album that's done more to advance the cause of bluegrass since Bill Monroe first conjured the music out of the hills of western Kentucky. While their previous full album, Forget About It, showcased the more contemporary part of Krauss's musical equation and the O Brother soundtrack spotlighted the more traditional, New Favorite combines the approaches in balancing the softer sounds with the rougher-edged material. Krauss' soft and intimate vocals particularly shine on the soulful title tune of love gone cold. However, it's mostly the older sounds that you'll remember from this largely sombre album, one that telegraphs uncertainty, doom, and the promise of bloodshed throughout much of the repertoire. On "Momma Cried", a song about a child-snatching that tore a family asunder, Dan Tyminski's tenor vocals rise above a wailing dobro, a driving banjo and a thumping, anchoring bass to convey unspeakable pain. Too many of the pop-minded songs fall flat in comparison, but although this may not be the group's best effort overall, no other crossover bluegrass band begins to meet their mark either musically or emotionally, as New Favorite so amply shows. -Alanna Nash.

The major-label debut from this Texas trio proves their instrumental abilities, blending more traditional twang with slow melodic blues, foot-tapping rockabilly, and bluegrass-inspired pop harmonies. From the opener, "I Can Love You Better", the Chicks let their love of music and genuine joy shine through while the energy on this album reminds one of Carlene Carter. Solid musicianship, top-notch vocal performances, and infectious pop hooks make this a stellar project. -Paula Ghergia.