A singer-songwriter revered by other troubadours, Iowa"s Greg Brown here applies his craggy baritone to a selection of folk standards and obscurities in the public domain. There"s an organic earthiness in Brown"s voice, while the musical support has a homespun spirit thanks to harmonies from daughters Pieta and Constie Brown as well as Brown"s wife, Iris DeMent. Many of the interpretations mine the darker strains of folk tradition--Brown takes the brooding "Who Killed Cock Robin" far from the whimsy of a children"s song--while his "Old Smokey" strays a long way from the familiar into a ballad of romantic faithlessness. It would be hard to imagine a lower lonesome than his "Down in the Valley" until he hits the suicidal despair of "I Never Will Marry." Yet the rousing gospel of "Samson" and "Jacob"s Ladder" brings the set to a spirited finale, and the spare instrumental interplay of fiddler and mandolinist Al Murphy, banjoist Bob Black, and guitarist and co-producer Bo Ramsey is superb throughout. Without reading the credits, one would never know that the two contemporary songs--Brown"s "Ain"t No One Like You" and Jim Garland"s worker"s anthem "I Don"t Want Your Millions Mister"--aren"t traditional folk as well. --Don McLeese