As any fan of Emmylou Harris can tell you, Harris loves nothing more than trying something new and if that something new also happens to be a curveball, well then, all the better. Angel Band is a quiet acoustic album of mostly traditional country-gospel songs sung with brilliant harmonies that spotlight Harris’ beautiful sense of phrasing. “Where Could I Go But to the Lord,” “If I Be Lifted Up,” “When He Calls,” “We Shall Rise” and “When They Ring Those Golden Bells” have an old-time spiritualism to them that Harris brilliantly conveys with reverence but also with energy and verve. Vince Gill, Emory Gordy, Jr. and Carl Jackson add their harmonies. Jerry Douglas joins in on dobro and Mark O’Connor fires up his fiddle. But mostly this is an album that sounds as if it were recorded in the living room around a fire with the most extraordinary talent in Nashville trading songs handed down for generations.