ADRIENNE YOUNG

"Gonna start a revolution... practicing the art of virtue," Adrienne Young declares at the start of her second album. What this young singer and picker really goes on to do with The Art of Virtue is build on her impressive debut, last year's Plow to the End of the Row, which, like the new one, also features her band, Little Sadie. Alternating traditional numbers such as "Bonaparte's Retreat" and "Farther Along" with originals that include the folk story "Ella Arkansas" and the antiwar "It's All the Same" - as well as a version of the Grateful Dead's "Brokendown Palace" - Young again brings a striking new voice and modern sensibility to a sound firmly rooted in old-time acoustic music.

- Nick Cristiano