POP REVIEW : A Soaring Tribute to Leadbelly, Guthrie

****VARIOUS ARTISTS. ‘Folkways: A Vision Shared--A Tribute to Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly.” Columbia.

More often than not, all-star tribute albums such as this collapse under the weight of well-intentioned genuflecting. But considering the integrity of the two honorees and of those paying their respects--Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Little Richard with Fishbone (!), Willie Nelson, Brian Wilson, Emmylou Harris, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger, Doc Watson and Sweet Honey in the Rock--it’s not too surprising that this album soars.

Besides offering sterling testimony to the fundamental roles Leadbelly (real name: Huddie Ledbetter) and Woody Guthrie played in shaping the conscience of postwar popular music, these 14 performances show how strongly those two voices are still felt in the music of today’s socially conscious singers. (Proceeds will support the Smithsonian Institution’s purchase of Folkways Records--the label that kept the flame alive--and the Woody Guthrie Archives.)

Springsteen’s sparse reading of “I Ain’t Got No Home,” would have fit right in among the tales of displaced, alienated Americans on his Guthrie-inspired “Nebraska” album. And U2 surpasses itself with a heaven-bent rendition of Guthrie’s “Jesus Christ” that has all the unbridled spiritualism the group often only hints at on its own records.

There’s also a genuine sense of care and inspiration in the pairings of artists with material, and of performers with performers. Whoever thought to team up Little Richard with Fishbone for an exultant gospel-funk treatment of Leadbelly’s “Rock Island Line” deserves a special Grammy.

It’s too bad that the album closes with its only sliver of compromise. Pete Seeger and Sweet Honey in the Rock’s for “This Land Is Your Land” leaves out the rarely heard verses that transform the song from a feel-good, patriotic sing-along into the stinging populist anthem that Guthrie had in mind.

But that’s a minor gripe--overall, this album should introduce a whole new generation to the invaluable legacy of two of America’s most eloquent spokesmen for the common man.