By GRAHAM REID
(Herald rating: * * * )
Sole interest for casual listeners is Jack White Stripe puttin' on trad.country duds and deliverin' the ol' country-blues songs Wayfaring Stranger, Sittin' on Top of the World, Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over and Great High Mountain, plus his moving period-piece Never Far Way.
Is he good? Yup -- but that's really no surprise because while he might be a garageband punk rocker he's also a self-taught musicologist and treats these songs with respect for character and context. But if the Stripes' Seven Nation Army is your thing, don't sign up for this ruthlessly acoustic outing.
Elsewhere Elvis Costello and Sting offer songs in the genre and the likes of Alison Krauss, Cassie Franklin and others take you into fiddle-scraping Civil War balladry.
Then there's decontextualised, string-inflated orchestral or minimal piano soundtrack stuff.
Overall not a patch on The Civil War (from the Ken Burns' doco series of the same name) but with hymnal, gospel and melancholy pieces up early this could be another O Brother, Where Art Thou -- if you're prepared to accept he's gone to the killing fields. But in a melancholic's upbeat way.
(Sony)
<i>Various:</i> Cold Mountain soundtrack
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