Various: Lost Highway: Lost and Found Volume 1

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * )

If you've ever wondered why some music critics drop the seemingly misspelt "Americana" into their reviews, or, you spend entire evenings debating the relative merits of Ryan Adams' Love is Hell Parts 1 and 2, then this compilation is recommended.

A collection of "13 rarities, B-sides, unreleased and studio cuts" from the rustic rock label Lost Highway and affiliates, it acts as a soundtrack to an imaginary movie -- one of, yes, long interstates, wide horizons, dark bars in small towns, and the occasional tumbleweed.

Adams leads this off with Rosalie Come and Go and appears again on his old band Whiskeytown's Choked Up. Other double contributors include Lucinda Williams (the primitive blues of Just Like That; the lovely Righteously), Willie Nelson (with Ray Price on Run That By Me One More Time; a live I Didn't Come Here and I Ain't Leaving) and the Jayhawks (very Beatle-rock on Fools on Parade but very rodeo-friendly on new track Falling Star).

Add new songs by new soul guy Marc Broussard and Unamerican, add one oldie one to finish -- the late Johnny Cash doing Wichita Lineman -- and Lost Highway's rattle through the vaults becomes a real find.

(Lost Highway)