Album: Ollabelle
Artist: Ollabelle
Label: Columbia/Sony
Sounds like: Ben Harper, Norah Jones

Ollabelle’s excellent debut is a nostalgic trip round the haunts of America’s traditional sound. This eclectic group of six, thanks to their wide-ranging musical skills (including both male and female vocalists), manage to cover all the stops along the way, via covers and original songs that evoke Southern Baptist choirs next to rambling blues singers in smoky jook-joints. T-Bone Burnett is executive producer, but this is more Old South than the Appalachian folk of “O brother where art thou?” with clanking National Steel or B B King guitar over ubiquitous bubbling organ and harmonious blending of voices. It’s beautifully authentic, drawing from a rich spiritual tradition that’s sometimes lacking from current Christian pop.

Four out of Five