The Songs of Fred Eaglesmith: A Tribute (TwangOff, 2003)

It's always nice when a tribute album serves the pure purpose of honoring a deserving subject with classy and/or varied versions of the tributee's catalog, as opposed to the shameless hucksterism of picking obvious subjects to tribute and salting the mine with obvious commercial appeal artists.

This Fred Eaglesmith tribute clearly falls into the former category, as Eaglesmith has long been acclaimed as a songwriter's songwriter and his work easily meets the criteria for being hailed by his peers. At least some of the credit for the success of this tribute has to be awarded to producer Michael Holm for his truly inspired choices in contributors.

the Lord." Whether by earnest imitation or inventive arrangement, the artists match Eaglesmith's brilliant song craft with an equal level of performance. And that's how you make a great tribute album. (twangoff.com)