RECORD RACK

The big question in the film is whether Robert Duvall’s flamboyant Pentecostal preacher is the real deal.

This soundtrack isn’t, technically that is: Only three of these recordings of vintage gospel songs are heard in the movie. Numbers sung by characters in writer-actor-director Robert Duvall’s exploration of that old-time religion are done here by Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Steven Curtis Chapman and other top country, Christian and gospel performers.

The music itself, however, is the real deal, although the all-star approach can’t achieve the power of a concentrated gospel performance. Still, the simple secret of gospel music is that while sermons may touch the head or the heart, music can reach directly to the soul, and many of these renditions make that point clear.

The Gaither Vocal Band harmonizes chillingly in “There Is a River” and Rebecca Lynn Howard sings with angelic purity in “Softly & Tenderly.” Sounds of Blackness adds the black gospel component with the rave-up “Victory Is Mine,” while Lyle Lovett bridges white country and black gospel with his big-band-and-choir rendition of “I’m a Soldier in the Army of the Lord.” Say amen, somebody.

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