By DAVE FERMAN
Star-Telegram Pop Music Critic
DALLAS - Frankly, I had some doubts about the Down From the Mountain Tour, the bluegrass/roots show that has been on the road capitalizing on the success of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack and the resurgence of interest in Americana music.
Old-timey acoustic pickin' and singin' at a huge outdoor shed like the Smirnoff Music Centre? Music spawned in rural churches, on back porches and the like, in a place usually reserved for the likes of Dave Matthews?
Happily, I was dead wrong.
The show, which drew around 8,000 on Saturday night, was a total delight.
More than two hours and two dozen songs, performed with grace and soul, ended with a four-song set by Dr. Ralph Stanley - who cut I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow back in 1948 - and "everybody onstage" versions of Angel Band and Amazing Grace.
Houston's Rodney Crowell introduced the Nashville Bluegrass Band, which kicked off the evening with a take on the ancient Po' Lazarus, the first song from the O Brother soundtrack.
From then on, the show was a sort of round-robin affair: Various acts (from Texas' own The Whites to Emmylou Harris to Patty Loveless to Alison Krauss & Union Station) would come on, often with friends in tow, and sing a few songs, then reappear later, with others.
Crowell was master of ceremonies - he also hushed the crowd with I Know Love Is All I Need - and the two-set show, which wrapped up right at 11 p.m., ran briskly.
Highlights? How much time do you have? Loveless' You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive was heart-rending; every note out of Harris' mouth was the stuff of dreams; the Flatlanders' three-song set was a rollicking delight (Love the matching shirts, guys); the prepubescent Peasall Sisters' In the Highways positively glowed; Chris Thomas King's take on Hard Time Killing Floor Blues was perfectly spooky; and so on.
But the evening belonged to the spry, compact Stanley, whose recording career began in 1947 and whose takes on O Death and (with Loveless) the ancient murder ballad Pretty Polly were the pinnacles of a night loaded with marvelous moments.
We did hear the voice from the mountain, drawn from the shared well of memory and myth, and it was ours.