Brown's thoughts are far from macho, but they're unmistakably male. Having women sing Brown's songs brings his lyrics into focus. As Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch and Mary Chapin Carpenter tackle his love of nature, love of lovemaking and growing disgust with what his country has become, Brown somehow becomes an even realer person than he is on his own albums.
Songs about daughters, part of what makes this tribute so fitting, are another recurring theme in Brown's work. His tribute to his great-grandmother, who grew up in the Ozarks, takes on new meaning when sung in three-part harmony by Brown's own daughters, Zoe, Pieta and Constie. When Iris Dement sings "The Train Carrying Jimmie Rodgers Home," it's as if the song's narrator, waiting patiently for Rodgers' funeral train to pass, has become Rodgers' granddaughter rather than Brown's old codger. "Say a Little Prayer," sung well by Shawn Colvin, is just that -- a little prayer that his daughter, who probably has just a cold or just a flu, will get well. A lesser writer would kill the song with cuteness or sentiment; a lesser singer might lose the self-deprecating humor of the parent's anxiety. Colvin leaves listeners with the kind of fragile grin that turns to laughing tears if witnessed. For fans of the singers or the songs (and the many who are fans of both), this is a tribute done just right.
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