After killing it on "Hit 'Em Up Style" – the cover of Blu Cantrell's 2001 R&B hit that branded its breakout Genuine Negro Jig LP – this mischievous old-time string band might've been tempted to cut a whole bunch of amusing pop covers. But the trio's latest confirms they're more than a novelty machine. Produced by alt-country guru Buddy Miller, Eden grows handsome fruit from a nation's tangled roots: "Ruby, Are You Mad at Your Man?" turns a 1940 hillbilly yodel by banjo picker Cousin Emmy into a roaring country blues; Rhiannon Giddens veers between Miranda Lambert and Beyoncé on the original "Country Girl"; and "Mahalla" is inspired by a YouTube video of an African guitarist playing slide with a teaspoon in his mouth. Leaving Eden is a lesson in 21st-century American folk – a tradition that's as miscegenated as ever, and stronger for it.

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• Photos: Random Notes

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.