Rockbites: The Gift soundtrack spans 35 years of alt country

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January 2001 • Rockbites Alternative Daily

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The Gift soundtrack spans 35 years of alt country
15 January 2001

Billy Bob Thornton, aka Mr. Angelina Jolie, wrote his new crime thriller The Gift as a semi-biographical tribute to his mother and her uncanny intuition—which in the film expands to full-blown clairvoyance. The story unfolds in a small Georgia town, set to a dark and haunting soundtrack that draws from classic work by George Jones, Hasil Adkins, Lee Hazlewood, and Loretta Lynn.
    If you don’t know much about ’50s and ’60s era American country music, this record may be a revelation. Atmospheric, introspective, quirky, and minimalistic, the songs chosen for The Gift have much more to do with the likes of Galaxie 500, Sebadoh, and Arab Strap than with Dixie Chicks or Tim McGraw.
    The Gift also includes more recent work in the same mostly-dark vein, including tracks by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Neko Case. It’s all good. The one big surprise is a new song by Amy Nelson (Willie’s daughter) titled In Case We Die. Apparently her recorded debut, the song is quite beautiful and very strong. The younger Nelson’s fallen angel voice just might do for country what Brix Smith (once married to The Fall’s Mark E. Smith) did for pop back in the late ’80s with her band The Adult Net: without straying from a well-worn genre, provide stunning songs through sheer musical creativity. We’re eager to hear more from this preternaturally talented newcomer.
    The soundtrack to The Gift hits North American stores tomorrow, while the movie debuts in the US on Friday. | CD | | top of page |

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