Mountain Soul II

iTunes Review

An Appalachian-tinged take on Harlan Howard’s “Busted” opens this album with Patty Loveless singing angelically over bluegrass deity Del McCoury on guitar, his son Ronnie on mandolin, Bryan Sutton on banjo and Rob Ickes on dobro. The old traditional “Working On a Building” also gets the pickin’ and grinnin’ treatment as does the peppy “Big Chance.” But the other 12 tunes branch out into various pockets of Americana, making for a much less predictable listening experience than the first Mountain Soul. Also, a roster of impressive guests like Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill and Rebecca Lynn Howard help flesh things out. “(We Are All) Children Of Abraham” sounds like an old public domain chain-gang hymn, with its gospel harmonies and a capella performance (not to mention that it follows a similarly executed take on the traditional “Friends In Gloryland”), but Loveless wrote the tune with producer Emory Gordy, Jr. The Emmylou-penned “Diamond In My Crown” ends the album beautifully with nothing but an antiquated pump organ accompanying Loveless and Harris.