Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

It's always disappointing--jolting, really--when you buy the soundtrack to something and find that it bears no resemblance to what you loved in the film. The most glaring example I can think of is the "When Harry Met Sally" soundtrack, which in the theatres featured gorgeous standards rendered by people like Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong--but on the CD, has Harry Connick, Jr. singing the same tunes. I like Harry Connick, Jr., but he's not the reason I wanted the "Harry Met Sally" soundtrack. 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.