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Such is the case with "Songcatcher," which had lots of great songs sung by the actors in the movie--Emmy Rossum, Pat Carroll, Iris Dement, and more. What you have on the CD is a grouping of some of the same songs, all performed by greater-known lights of country and bluegrass music--people like Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, and Dolly Parton. I'm not complaining--they do a super job, and they know this kind of music, so their renditions are heartfelt and gorgeous to listen to. It's just not the same as the music in the film, so it's a little disconcerting.

Iris Dement's upright rendition of "Pretty Saro," on which her wiry, plaintive voice is accompanied only by a fiddle, is particularly fine and just as she sang it in the film. And newcomer Emmy Rossum's warm and vigorous version of the quietly horrifying "Barbara Allen" is gorgeous, but it is just one verse leading into Emmylou Harris doing the same song. Frankly, I prefer Emmy Rossum's less prettified version and wish they'd kept it instead of having it segue into Harris. Rossum was in her early teens when she recorded this, but she has a vocal maturity that leaves you wanting more.

Patty Loveless on "Sounds of Loneliness" is a revelation, giving full throat to her mountain-music voice. She soars effortlessly on the upper range and does full, dark justice to the lower register. It's worth listening to over and over again. Maria McKee's quiet and intense version of "Wayfaring Stranger" almost makes you hold your breath as you listen--it's that compelling. One I'd never heard before, "Mary of the Wild Moor," is performed by Sara Evans, whose pristine voice stands in stark contrast to the frightening tale she describes.

Perhaps one of the best things on the album is actress Pat Carroll's witty, humorous take on "Single Girl," in which she details all the things better about being single than married--particularly fitting when you consider that she plays a mountain woman who'd had eight or nine children. There's lots of gold to mine here, once you get past the idea that what you hear here is not at all the same as what you heard in the film.


Songcatcher "Soundtrack" Totally Misses the Point!   August 29, 2001
 70 out of 78 found this review helpful

Like another of the above reviewers, I left the theater after seeing this stunningly moving film and drove directly to the music store to buy the soundtrack CD. I was hoping that the music featured in the film would be presented as it was in the movie, maybe even with extended versions of some of the shorter selections included (as was done on the O Brother soudtrack). It is an understatement to say that I was extremely let down!
The music on this CD is disappointing on two levels. The theme of the movie is that a professor of folklore and traditional music travels from Britain to Appalachia to search out and record the regional music of the area, much of which was brought over from the British Isles, and which because of the relative isolation of the area has been preserved in a condition closer to its "roots" than the music being "collected" in Britain. The professor begins collecting the tunes in a very academic/scientific manner, and she ends up completely captivated by the stark beauty of the music and the soul of the local people. Over the course of the movie she falls in love with the music for its own sake, rather than for any academic value it might have, and she becomes dedicated to trying to preserve and promote the music in its natural state, and to prevent its exploitation.
The music on this CD (except for a few "token" tracks and snippets) is mostly commercial, Nashville-influenced music, recorded in a manner that in no way reflects the spirit of the movie. I am an amateur old-time musician (I have actually played with several of the musicians featured in the movie at old-time music workshops in North Carolina), and I can tell you that any resemblance between the commercial country music recorded on this CD and the traditional music featured in the movie is in name only. I am afraid that either the artists featured on the CD are too far removed from their traditional-music roots, or that any of the original soul of the music is effectively removed by the commercial recording formula.
This CD also disappoints on a second level, in that if you take it purely as a compilation of traditional tunes by contemporary artists, it is not really very satisfying. (It reminds me of all the obligatory Christmas albums halfheartedly recorded bt just about every pop and country artist over the last 15 years.) I get the feeling that the CD was put together just so that there would be a "soundtrack" album available, mainly for those interested in collecting soudtracks, and that those responsible for the recording felt that the music actually included in the film just wouldn't "sell".
If you are one of the folks who, like me, were totally captivated by the music in this movie and its performance by the actors, you will be sorely disappointed by this CD. Don't buy it!


old music made new   May 16, 2001
 48 out of 51 found this review helpful

Songcatcher may lack the exuberance of the O Brother, Where Are Thou? soundtrack, but it is still awfully good, with one sublime performance after another. The songs are mostly traditional, and the rest could as well be. They range in style from some that sound almost like field recordings (e.g., Iris DeMent's "Pretty Saro") to others set inside tastefully spare but distinctly modern arrangements (Emmylou Harris's "Barbara Allen"). Some are sung by performers whom one would never have expected to take on folk material (Rosanne Cash, Allison Moorer, Deana Carter), while other artists are at-ease veterans of the genre (Dolly Parton, Gillian Welch, Harris, Hazel Dickens). Whatever their backgrounds, all manage to turn in loving, assured readings. Carter, however, gets a little too close to the original, so faithful to her model, the influential Clarence Ashley variant of "The Cuckoo Bird," that -- just as Ashley's slipped tongue had it -- the bird "wobbles" (as opposed to "warbles") as she flies. The one overlap with O Brother is "Conversation with Death," called "O Death" in Ralph Stanley's version on the other disc. Amazingly, this version holds its own against Stanley's memorably eerie rendition. Like O Brother, Songcatcher gives old music new life, and we are all the better for it.


Read the Fine Print   June 21, 2001
 41 out of 54 found this review helpful

I saw the movie "Soncatcher". The story about music of the southern states as sung and played in remote hillbilly mountain country circa 1900. In the film, the tunes unfold with sponteneity, most without instrumental background, focusing on the purity of the human voice for expression. This album contains a few songs from the film and a couple full orchestra overture cuts. The majority on the album are sung by country pros who use studio orchestras for all they are worth. It is a mockery of the film and I felt these stars were trying to capitalize on the bandwagon of accollades that will follow this great film. A finely printed sentence below the title "Songcatcher" says "music from and inspired by the motion picture...". Too bad for the movie fans.


The roots of American music   July 19, 2001
 37 out of 38 found this review helpful

This CD, part movie soundtrack, part separate compilation is a wonderful introduction to the early rural roots of American country music before it went suburban and became watered down Muzak al la Faith Hill and Shania Twain. Like the soundtrack to the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou," it recalls a time when music was enjoyed for its own sake, and not solely drive by spreadsheets and profit margins.

But "Songcatcher" actually predates "O Brother" in that the songs that are here are either hundreds of years old ("Fair and Tender Maidens," "Pretty Saro," "Barbara Allen," "Wind and Rain," etc.) or originals heavily influenced by the style the movie and this CD seek to pay homage to ("When Love is New," "All My Tears," etc). These are the old ballads that were sung in rural England in the 16th and 17th centuries and brought over with the English settlers when they settled the southern Appalachians. By the early 20th century, when the movie is set, these ballads had mostly died out in England and in urban American, but survived in the mountains. Folklorists, such as Cecil Sharp and Olive Dame Campbell (among others) helped to see that these ballads were preserved thought their efforts of collecting them. Their efforts helped to inspire the movie "Songcatcher."

These old ballads are part of the roots of American country music. The mountain ballads eventually mixed with other genres to form bluegrass and bluegrass, of course, is a significant sub-genre of country music. At a time when Nashville has sold its soul to the highest bidder, the success of the "O Brother" soundtrack is most welcome, and the efforts of "Songcatcher," both the film and this wonderful CD, are helping to remind people just where that music came from.