Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody calls this collaborative side project, which includes R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, a "twisted love letter to the States" — a very Bono-ish phrase, especially coming from an Irishman given to sweeping visions. But Lightbody works vague elegance, not rootsy specificity, and this mainly sounds like a folky spin on Snow Patrol's forlorn Coldplay-ish alt-rock, not an attempt to put on Delta wading boots. Zooey Deschanel sweetens up the distortion-darkened torch ballad "Get on the Road," the guy from the Editors sings some Nick Cave-ish gothy-tonk, and Buck's banjo and mandolin evoke early-Nineties R.E.M. at their prettiest, which is about as "Southern" as this polite, aimless record really needs to be.

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“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."