ATO

About a dozen years ago, a John Denver tribute album titled Take Me Home assembled performances from eccentric indie interpreters like Bonnie “Prince” Billy. The Music Is You is a different animal: It’s the first album to gather a cast of roots, alt-rock and mainstream pop heavyweights and take a straightforward approach to Denver’s catalog. Extremely clean-cut, self-reflective ‘70s singer/songwriters like Denver have been a hard sell for a while. His best-known songs – many of which were absolute commercial blockbusters – ever so gently articulated a desire for human intimacy and for free and easy feelings stirred by majestic natural surroundings. Denver’s songs were meant to be approachable, and a number of the performers on this tribute seem to get that. Old Crow Medicine Show rein in their wild-eyed, old-time attack a bit on “Back Home Again,” but keep it jaunty. Instead of playing fast and loose with his phrasing of “Rocky Mountain High,” soul-pop crooner Allen Stone prioritizes lyrical clarity and fills gaps with his balmy vibrato. My Morning Jacket does a gingerly plaintive reading of the folk hit “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” In the hands of harmonizers Brandi Carlile and Emmylou Harris, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” sounds as countrified and vital as it ever has. It shouldn’t surprise that Train – the act most experienced in reaching a mass radio audience – comes closest to the spirit of Denver. And “Sunshine on My Shoulders” finds a keen interpreter in Pat Monahan. With all of the earnest young singer/songwriters and folk-rock bands out there, this is the sort of musical moment when Denver’s songs might find new resonance, and this largely on-target tribute can’t hurt.