Songcatcher

1	Fair and Tender Ladies / Rosanne Cash 2:56
2	Pretty Saro / Iris DeMent 2:54
3	When Love Is New / Dolly Parton 5:16
4	Barbara Allen / Emmy Rossum 0:43
5	Barbara Allen / Emmylou Harris 4:35
6	Moonshiner / Allison Moorer 3:34
7	Sounds of Loneliness / Patty Loveless 3:44
8	All My Tears / Julie Miller 3:11
9	Mary of the Wild Moor / Sara Evans 3:51
10	Wayfairing Stranger / Maria McKee 3:24
11	Wind and Rain / Gillian Welch 3:25
12	The Cuckoo Bird / Deana Carler 3:33
13	Score Suite # 1 / Daivd Mansfield 5:01
14	Conversation With Death / Bobby McMillon 3:01
15	Score Suite # 2 / David Mansfield 4:58
16	Single Girl / Pat Carrell 1:04

Barnes & Noble

Like its counterpart soundtrack O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the splendid traditional fare on Songcatcher doesn't need visuals to be profound and deeply soul stirring. An independent film set in 1907, Songcatcher tells the story of Dr. Lily Penleric, a prim and proper musicologist who discovers the all-male review board has denied her tenure, whereupon she embarks on an eye-opening -- and ear-opening -- visit to her sister in the Western Mountains of North Carolina. The stellar female voices giving life to an ages-old repertoire ("Barbara Allen," "Wayfarin' Stranger," "Moonshiner," et al.) include those of Rosanne Cash, Julie Miller, Allison Moorer, Emmylou Harris, Iris DeMent, Deana Carter, Gillian Welch, and Maria McKee. Newly written songs in the Appalachian style are contributed by Patty Loveless ("Sounds of Loneliness"), Julie Miller ("All My Tears"), and, notably, Dolly Parton, whose "When Love Is New" (sung with actress Emmy Rossum) is of a piece with the powerful original songs she penned for her The Grass Is Blue and The Little Sparrow bluegrass albums. To say that Songcatcher will stand the test of time is to state the obvious -- it already has. David McGee

All Music Guide

The soundtrack to a film about a woman music scholar's travels in Appalachia is largely devoted to contemporary versions of traditional folk songs by an impressive roster of female vocalists. Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Maria McKee, Dolly Parton (dueting with Emmy Rossum), Gillian Welch, Iris DeMent, and Patty Loveless are the big names here, though there are a few lesser-known singers like Julie Miller, Deanna Carter, and Sara Evans. While the interpretations are not scintillating and not the best versions of the songs you could possibly find, they're well done and make for a consistent listen, particularly by various-artist soundtrack standards. Occasionally the performers shine, as Rosanne Cash does on her cover of "Fair and Tender Ladies," Maria McKee on "Wayfarin' Stranger," and Emmylou Harris on "Barbara Allen." This isn't, by the way, always trying to re-create Appalachian music as it might have sounded in the early 20th century, as Cash's "Fair and Tender Ladies" and Carter's "The Cuckoo Bird," to use two of the better examples, have fairly full and rhythmic arrangements. For those who want the stark sound, DeMent's "Pretty Saro" is backed only by David Mansfield's fiddle, and Rossum sings a brief "Barbara Allen" unaccompanied (Hazel Dickens also does her snatch of "Conversation With Death" unaccompanied). Two snatches of David Mansfield's orchestrated film score are also included, and are unnecessary distractions. In the time-honored manner of contemporary updates of traditional material, this will serve the purpose of leading some listeners into a world they don't know much about, and as such projects go, it's more credible and successful than most. Richie Unterberger