or Mahalia Jackson wailing low and powerful about hers, whether it's Bob Marley crying in a Jamaican patois about Haile Selassie or Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan singing in Urdu about Allah, the best religious music shares the contagious, thrilling conviction that the singer's god is the most important thing in his or her life. And that passion is too often missing from "Common Ground: Country Songs of Faith, Love & Inspiration," the new anthology of gospel songs by country stars on the Sony labels. -- Geoffrey Himes  (less)

notion that the Indigos can't rock. Recorded with London ensemble Ghostland (Sinead O'Connor's backing band on her 1998 Lilith dates), Come On Now Social doesn't abandon the Georgia duo's familiar folkish sound, but expands it to include soul ("Peace Tonight"), funked-up mountain music ("Ozilline"), full-on rock ("Compromise"), and blistering Steve Earle-style country ("Faye Tucker"). Guest artists abound, including Sheryl Crow, Luscious Jackson's Kate Schellenbach, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Joan Osborne, the Band's Rick Danko and Garth Hudson, and Natacha Atlas, but they don't overshadow Emily Saliers and Amy Ray, who are at the top of their game here. --Daniel Durchholz  (less)

have provided country music with some of its finest moments. Joe Diffie, once marketed as a neo-traditionalist heartthrob, has found a new niche as a comic singer on Third Rock from the Sun , and his light, giddy touch with this material proves infectious. The album includes several run-of-the-mill romantic ballads, but it's the funny stuff that makes this recording special. --Geoffrey Himes  (less)

though, as in the hands of a Rodney Crowell or a Kathy Mattea, country-pop marries the storytelling craft of Nashville with the harmonic sophistication of the Beatles. Crowell is the obvious model on Days Gone By , James House's third attempt to make the transition from songwriter to artist. He doesn't quite rise to Crowell's high standards, but House comes close enough to make this a thoroughly enjoyable example of commercial country-pop. Like Crowell, House is a great admirer of Roy Orbison. The best song on House's new album, Little by Little , was obviously inspired by the operatic crooner in shades and it builds unstoppably from tentative efforts to forget an old lover to a big, climactic confession of undying love. Orbison's...  (less)

Leaving," "After All This Time," and "It's Such a Small World," a duet with then-wife Rosanne Cash. Through passing years and changing trends, this music has lost none of its freshness, immediacy, and cut-to-the-bone conviction. Incorporating echoes of Buck Owens ("Above and Beyond"), buoyant roots-rock ("I Know You're Married"), and vintage rockabilly ("Crazy Baby"), Crowell's thematically linked song cycle tracks the convolutions of a complex marriage. There are two more diamonds ("It's Lonely Out," "Lies Don't Lie") among the concluding trio of previously unreleased demos. --Don McLeese  (less)

division. What hasn't changed is her music. The Wheel boasts the same kind of extremely personal portraits of troubled marriage and unsettled womanhood set to the same sort of lucid folk-pop as her previous three albums. No one in Anglo-American pop does it better. Cash is the Billie Holiday of country singers. Her small voice sometimes wanders off pitch, but she invests her soft, close-microphone vocals with so much core emotion that she creates the illusion of whispering the most intimate secrets into each listener's ear. Her translucent voice projects such resilient strength that the listener's reaction is not pity but gratitude for the confidence. -- Geoffrey Himes  (less)

nailed his blues-pop ambitions with a warm mix of sonics and songcraft. The Door wraps spare arrangements around Moore's bone-deep slide guitar and the slow-granite foundation of drummer Jim Keltner and bassist Reggie McBride. They catch the spirit of the music's simple country roots, but spin savvy moves like updating Elmore James's "It Hurts Me Too" with a hip-hop groove that flies. Moore has also penned wise, sweetly emotional lyrics. He weaves themes like class-consciousness (the star-crossed love ode "Anyway") and poverty of the spirit ("Change") into heart-tugging ballads colored by the chocolate-y Mississippi moan of his voice. Add in flourishes of electric jazz guitar and some nasty rock tones, and this tallies up as his most ambi...  (less)

cotton-candy pop oldies ("Little Things" and "Little Bitty Pretty One"), oddball novelties ("The Snake Song"), or inspirational fare ("There's a Hero"). His credible delivery of "Oklahoma," the moving tale of one boy's trip to meet a long-vanished father, is a fine performance that transcends his age. Don't blame him for the weak spots. Credit for the cookie-cutter arrangements and such soggy ballads as the preachy title track goes to multiple producers Don Cook (Music Row's dean of formulaic production), David Malloy, and Blake Chancey. As always, their goals are to satisfy the one-dimensional country-radio consultants who dictate what gets played, nothing more. Long ago, producers Owen Bradley and Billy Sherrill helped Brenda Lee and Tany...  (less)