‘Mountain’ goes traditional route

Various artists

Cold Mountain music from the Miramax motion picture

DMX/Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrax

Producer T Bone Burnett has dug deeply into the sound of America’s past once again with his soundtrack for “Cold Mountain,” a rough-cut, haunting disc featuring music from Alison Krauss and Jack White.

Mr. Burnett is credited with something of a revival in public awareness of traditional American mountain music with his Grammy-winning soundtrack for the 2000 Coen brothers’ film, “O Brother Where Art Thou?” and the 2000 “Down From the Mountain” recordings at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn.

He taps the same vein in his work on “Cold Mountain,” but he leans more toward the spiritual side, choosing two songs performed by the Sacred Harp Singers at Liberty Church in Sand Mountain, Ala. This kind of eerie, primitive shape-note singing is rarely heard by modern audiences and involves choirs singing harmonies virtually at the top of their lungs.

Most of the material on the disc — “Wayfaring Stranger,” “I Wish My Baby Was Born,” “The Cuckoo,” the shape-note gospel songs and others — is traditional and executed faithfully to the Civil War period of the film. In addition to producing, Mr. Burnett co-wrote two songs that sound traditional: “Like a Songbird That Has Fallen,” written with Bobby Neuwirth, and “The Scarlet Tide,” written with Elvis Costello, the latter tune given a fragility only Miss Krauss’ voice can muster. She also gives voice to a Gaelic-sounding Sting composition, “You Will Be My AinTrue Love.”

Mr. White performs the old Walter Jacobs/Lonnie Carter chestnut “Sittin’ on Top on the World” as well as three others, including a composition of his own, “Never Far Away.” Gabriel Yared composed four orchestral pieces on the soundtrack that offer beautiful contrast to the edgier sounds of the traditional music.

Other musicians who appear on the record are well-known in acoustic music circles: Norman and Nancy Blake, Tim O’Brien, Stuart Duncan and Dirk Powell.

The International Bluegrass Music Association this month reports significant growth in interest in bluegrass music — a 104 percent increase in sales since 2000 — attributed largely to “O Brother” and its spinoff projects. Discerning listeners might argue over the differences between old-time and bluegrass music, but that’s strictly an academic exercise. The fact remains that films such as “Cold Mountain” that rely on traditional sounds to give them an authentic mountain air are filling a musical void left by popular radio and television music outlets.

As Mr. Burnett has demonstrated, an audience exists for this kind of music. What remains to be seen is whether other producers — and media — take the hint.