Album Review

*** 1/2 Freakwater, “Springtime,” Thrill Jockey. In the multi-platinum world of mainstream country, it’s the artists on the fringe who are most likely to avoid the music’s exaggerated, often hollow emotions.

Participating in a rich tradition that extends from the Flying Burrito Brothers in the late ‘60s to the Cowboy Junkies in the ‘80s, Freakwater is a Kentucky band whose grass-roots recordings and Appalachian ballads have remained loyal to the most soulful strains of country music while still expressing contemporary sensibilities.

Armed with a passion for the “high lonesome” bluegrass sound of Bill Monroe, the quartet’s Catherine Irwin and Janet Beveridge Bean have been writing songs together for more than a decade, blending their voices and reinterpreting timeless themes such as death, broken hearts and redemption.

Irwin’s writing is most compelling in her stories of ordinary folk caught in complex situations, such as sinners searching for truth in a faithless world.

This is the fifth album for Freakwater, which will be at the Troubadour tonight, and it’s another advance for a group whose brand of Southern Gothic suggests something far more than mere cowpunk affectation.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).