The latest releases reviewed.

ALISON KRAUSS
A Hundred Miles or More - A Collection
Rounder Records
***

Hearing Krauss live time was an experience to remember. Her voice was breathtaking in its unaffected purity, an unforced natural expression of traditional values and spiritual warmth. Shortly thereafter she became a major star, crossing over from her bluegrass roots and the collective security of her band, Union Station, to the mainstream. And there she lingers, caught betwixt and between, as this varied collection of odds and sods shows. There are movie songs, guest appearances and duets, but nothing definitive except to confirm that Krauss has a great voice. But it's one she appears to have sold short, with neither the hunger to build on her mainstream success nor an inclination to return to the roots of her passion. There are four new tracks among the 16, the best of which is the haunting Jacob's Dream, but we are overdue a really challenging Alison Krauss album. www.alisonkrauss.com      JOE BREEN

Download tracks: How's the World Treating You?, Jacob's Dream, The Scarlet Tide

SHOOTER JENNINGS
Put the O Back in Country
Wrasse
****

It can't be easy being the son of a legend, but Shooter Jennings is making a fair fist of it. Waylon's chip is certainly one off the old block, with a robust attitude and ribald tendencies, to judge by this hard- edged country album with a hard- rock overlay. There's plenty of name-checking, and even classic

old soak and survivor George Jones makes a cameo. Shooter takes his legacy seriously, going so far as to play his late father in the excellent Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. He has adopted the outlaw persona in his own career, and this album leans as heavily on vintage Rolling Stones as it does Hank Williams, with abrasive crash chords and gruff riffs matching Jennings's disgruntled southern snarls. His softer side gets a look in as well, but it is the hard- rocking honky-tonker who will pull into Kilkenny's forthcoming roots festival with his band in tow. Expect sparks. www.shooterjennings.com    JOE BREEN

Download tracks: 4th of July, Busted in Baylor County, Sweet Savannah

JEZZEBELLE
Dirt Tracks
No label
***

Debutants Jezzebelle wear their Dublin roots lightly, betraying a closer kinship to Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp than anything Liffeyside. Duo Katie Carpenter and Gary Burke are long on impassioned vocal tricks and metallic guitar lines, in a big hurry to get somewhere. What they lack in lyrical subtlety they make up for in hi-octane propulsion, and their driving, dogmatic rhythms mark them out from the crowd. In many ways they're the uncouth, unselfconscious cousin you'd avoid at family gatherings because their amp is permanently turned to 11. But in between the bluff and bluster is a pair of musicians scratching at an interesting surface. Carpenter's vocals shine on Come on Home, hinting at a honky tonk potential yet to be tapped. www.jezzebellemusic.com   SIOBHÁN LONG

Download tracks: Come on Home, Pretend