CD reviews: Levon Helm; Christina Courtin

POP/ROCK

Levon Helm, "Electric Dirt" (Vanguard)

Despite the title, don't expect an onslaught of power chords on this CD, which is just as likely to deploy a mandolin or a honky-tonk piano. It's the second album made by singer/drummer Helm of the Band since he recovered from throat cancer and started a series of roots-rocking "Midnight Ramble" concerts at his barn in Woodstock, N.Y., then took them on the road.

In 2007, he released "Dirt Farmer," a rigorously unplugged album that leans toward rural sounds and subject matter. "Electric Dirt" is closer to a Midnight Ramble set, ambling from gospel to sparse fiddle tune, from blues to close-harmony hymn. Helm sings a Muddy Waters blues, "Stuff You Gotta Watch," over a pumping accordion, and he turns "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" into jubilant New Orleans-flavored R&B.

"Growing Trade" is the one song on the album written by Helm. It's a Band-like chronicle of a cotton farmer turned marijuana grower after too many seasons of calamity.

Helm, 69, sounds irrepressible in a production that savors his singing and his beat. He's singing, more often than not, about woes and loss, but with enough spunk and faith to greet them undaunted. One thread on the album is songs about the South: the Grateful Dead's "Tennessee Jed," played like a Band-Dead merger, and Randy Newman's "Kingfish." Another is mortality. In the bluesy rocker "When I Go Away," the singer envisions his own funeral but calls for joy there because "there's only flesh and bones in the ground where my troubles will stay." The music struts and cackles through every earthly travail.

JON PARELES, NEW YORK TIMES

Christina Courtin, "Christina Courtin" (Nonesuch)

Courtin is impossibly enchanting in the early going on her new CD. A violinist and graduate of the Juilliard School, she dazzles on the opening "Green Jay," her odd and sprightly vocal intonations beautifully matched by a whimsical arrangement of jazz instruments. The carefully constructed "Bundah" follows, Courtin's dulcet voice and a florid acoustic guitar swaying through the lullaby that builds naturally with the addition of a string quartet. Although the songs are generally precise, they don't feel fussy. And Courtin's earthy delivery on "Foreign Country" helps humanize her ethereal vocals.

"Christina Courtin" is generally low-key, frilly and eccentric, an unusual culmination of work by talented musicians such as guitarist Marc Ribot, keyboardist Benmont Tench and multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion. Several strings add a chamber-pop feel. Yet the release also harkens everything from rock opera ("Laconia") to riverboat waltz ("One Man Down"). Unfortunately, "Christina Courtin" eventually settles into a somnolent mode that collapses into the closer, "Unzipped." But at least its ephemeral appeal is intoxicating while it lasts.

CHUCK CAMPBELL, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE