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Cold Mountain Soundtrack, Various Artists

Reviewed by Chris Ching

Producer T-Bone Burnett scored a commercial success and Grammy with the down home Americana charm of the Oh Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. Hoping to catch lightning in a jar for themselves, Sony Music and Miramax have handed over music producing reins to Burnett for the Civil War wannabe epic, Cold Mountain.

The pros and cons of the movie aside, Burnett has compiled an album that will make you want to jump off of Cold Mountain or any other elevated place you can find. The soundtrack is a queasy mix of traditional songs, original material by modern artists, and film score.

Oh Brother Where Art Thou had a peach of song in "Man of Constant Sorrow" to hook the record. Cold Mountain does not, unless you label snagging Jack White singing in a proto-1800's drawl as a musical coup. Message to Jack: banjo, mandolin, and fiddle are no substitute for Meg White. Not surprisingly, his most listenable track on the album is the self-penned "Never Far Away" a contemporary song "inspired" by the movie.

Wanting to go home and how one's loved one is out of reach are the central themes of Cold Mountain the movie and they dominate the soundtrack, but there's only so much a person can take of the same sentiment over and over again. The biggest offenders are the Sacred Harp singers with "I'm Going Home" and "Idumea". The CD booklet says their recordings were made at the Liberty Baptist Church in Alabama. This place of worship's preacher would be wise to never let them back in again.

For a much more satisfying listening experience, I recommend the soundtrack to Ken Burn's epic miniseries The Civil War which conveyed the tragedy and loss of that bitter era far more effectively than Cold Mountain. Don't try to kid yourself into thinking it has some deep cultural curio merely because it features sounds from over a hundred years ago. That's like saying in 2014 the soundtrack for Teen Poppin' a period drama about a Mousketeer who finds love with a rapper from the wrong side of the tracks and featuring the works of Nsync, B2K, and 98° will be a moving and eloquent collection of musical genius.

Rating: (1 1/2 out of 4 stars)