Sacred Heart
By 1995, Peter Ostroushko had served several years as music director of NPR'sA Prairie Home Companion, parlayed his fiddle and mandolin mastery into a busy sideman schedule, and recorded a handful of albums that solidly defined his voice as a folk artist touched equally by the Minnesota prairie he calls home and the Ukranian musical tradition he inherited. In that year he also launched what became a five-year project of striking ambition: over the course of a trilogy of albums, Ostroushko has sought to redefine himself as a composer conversant in all forms of acoustic music while conveying the spiritual contours of his heartland home. Preceded by 1995'sHeart of the Heartlandand 1997'sPilgrims on the Heart Road, 2000'sSacred Heartcompletes the Heartland Trilogy. In an almost all-instrumental affair (vocalistRuth MacKenziesings on just one track), Ostroushko melds folk traditions both foreign and domestic with the likes of jazz, classical, and even New Age music. The latter influence sits uncomfortably alongside the album's more organic material, but serene, reflective songs such as "Sacred Heart (Part 1)" and "Tatiana's Lament," featuring Ostroushko's bell-clear mandolin work, and "Medicene Bow," where he switches to fiddle, rank among his finest recent work.--Anders Smith-Lindall