Original Soundtrack Recording Mark Twain - A Film Directed By Ken Burns
The score to Ken Burns'sMark Twainwill feel instantly familiar  to fans of the popular documentary filmmaker's earlier work. As with Burns'sThe Civil WarandBaseball, pianist Jacqueline Schwab and  multi-instrumentalist Bobby Horton have been enlisted to tailor tunes to suit Burns's  needs. Schwab provides gracious takes on traditional songs such as "Wagoner's  Lad" and "Sweet Betsy from Page," contributing to the drawing-room ambiance of  the score. Horton, meanwhile, brings a bit more frontier texture to the  proceedings on the string-driven likes of "Dogue Creek" (one of three new  numbers from Al Petteway), "Poor Wayfarin' Stranger," and "Swing Low, Sweet  Chariot." Actor Kevin Conway stands in for the man of the hour, reading  witticisms from Twain and pulling the package together.--Steven Stolder