The Peasall Sisters - Home To You (2005)

Over the past five years, the Peasall Sisters, Sarah, 18; Hannah, 14; and Leah, 12; have earned GRAMMY and CMA Awards for their part in the blockbuster O Brother, Where Art Thou? movie and soundtrack, and performed at such esteemed venues as Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall with the acclaimed Down From the Mountain tour, in addition to the Grand Ole Opry. These are teenagers with nearly a decade of musical experience; thoroughly modern kids completely at home with songs many times older than themselves; three individuals with distinct personalities who slide together in instinctual, natural harmony. Add it all together, and it sounds like home. Dual Tone. 2005.

Old-time country music just doesn't get much younger than this, though the Peasall Sisters have practically become seasoned veterans over the five years since their childhood breakthrough on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. Sarah (now 18), Hannah (14), and Leah (12) may belong to a generation that has never known life without computers and cell phones, but they channel the inspiration of the Carter Family and conjure an era when some rural fans of the music didn't even have indoor plumbing. Though the results sometimes fail to distinguish between the timeless and the cloyingly quaint (the world hardly needs another version of the traditional "Angel Band" or A.P. Carter's "I Never Will Marry," especially renditions this mawkish), the spiritual material that opens and closes--the title track and the a cappella "Where No One Stands Alone"--finds the trio in truly transcendent harmony. It bodes well that what is arguably the best track here, "Gray County Line," is one of the album's three originals, while the production by John Carter Cash shows good ears as well as strong bloodlines. --Don McLeese