Various artists
American Epic: The Sessions
Columbia Records
Two and a half stars
Jack White, Nas, Elton John, Los Lobos, Bettye LaVette and Willie Nelson are part of a stellar cast performing a wide range of blues, country and other American songs and styles using vintage gear. It is part of a wider film, recording and publishing project rooted in the 1920s boom of recordings made with musicians across the country as record companies sought to expand their audiences and counter the rising popularity of radio.
Others on the 32-song, two-disc collection include Taj Mahal, Pokey LaFarge and Rhiannon Giddens, artists already grounded in that pioneering era who sound at home recording on reconstructed 1920s equipment using a single microphone.
Most of the repertoire consists of covers of decades-old tunes, although Elton John wrote 2 Fingers of Whiskey with Bernie Taupin and Nas.
A five-disc, 100-song box set called American Epic: The Collection, also excellent, has some of the sonically restored originals of songs such as The Coo Coo Bird – covered here by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell – and Mal Hombre, which features Ana Gabriel covering the truly fascinating Lydia Mendoza.
* Associated Press
