Thank modern technology for this sixteen-track benefit project intended to raise money for children affected by 2004′s catastrophic south Asian tsunami. Though it features some fascinating and musically productive collaborations, most of them were done not by assembling participants in one place, but by shipping tracks around the world to be worked on in studios and hotel rooms.
Despite the piecemeal assembly, virtually all the entries here work nicely, and it’s hard to tell the difference in technique between Jim Lauderdale and Maura O’Connell’s spare, lovely “This World’s Family” — recorded in one studio in one afternoon — and Tim O’Brien and Lunasa’s melancholy reading of “Fair And Tender Ladies”, recorded in Nashville (by O’Brien) and Dublin (by Lunasa, one of today’s premier contemporary Irish bands).
Produced by Andrea Zonn and John Cutliffe, the album mostly pairs American and Celtic artists, and on both sides, there’s an engaging range of talent — Darrell Scott, Vince Gill, John Prine, Altan, Cerys Matthews — that makes divisions into “mainstream” and “alt” categories seem pointless. The material, too, is all over the map, from traditional songs to ones newly composed for or given to the producers for the album. A slew of backup players and singers, among them Danny Thompson, Bryan Sutton, Alison Brown and Bonnie Raitt, tackle it all with unvarying grace and sensitivity.
American and Celtic musicians have been quietly building collaborative efforts for several years, including the Chieftains’ Down The Old Plank Road and the Transatlantic Sessions compilation. Hands Across The Water is a rewarding next step in that direction.
