When the offbeat filmmaking Coen Brothers set out a little more than five years ago to recast Homer's "Odyssey" into a tale of the adventures of a trio of escaped convicts in Depression-era Mississippi, the result was the hugely successful "O Brother, Where Art Thou?," a film that not only cemented George Clooney's status as a major star, but featured a landmark soundtrack of old country songs that sparked a wave of new interest in old time and bluegrass music that is still rippling across the country.

Most of the artists on the soundtrack were familiar names to those with even casual knowledge of the newly-christened "Americana" format, but many who saw the film or bought the soundtrack album (and millions did both) were intrigued by the sibling harmonies of a trio of pre-teen newcomers, the Peasall Sisters from the Nashville suburb of White House, Tenn.

The success of the film and soundtrack spawned a tour dubbed "Down From The Mountain" that criss-crossed the country drawing sellout crowds and included a number of artists from the soundtrack, the Peasalls among them.

As the 'O Brother' phenomenon began to recede, the sisters - Sarah (now 18), Hannah (14) and Leah (12) - set about the difficult task of doing what so many child stars in music and film have failed to do - sustain a career.

Their latest CD, the recently issued "Home To You" (on Dualtone) serves as pretty convincing evidence that not only are they growing as singers, but are showing remarkable writing and arranging talents as well. Three of the dozen tracks on the disc were written or co-written by Sarah, and she's particularly proud of "Logtown."

"That's a song that my mom (Sally) and I co-wrote. I just love that song. That's probably my favorite song I've ever written because it's so special to us. It's about a town that our family was from, so that has kind of a special place in our hearts...How it turned out, instrumentally and musically is just amazing to me."

The town of the song's title is a ghost town on the Mississippi side of the Pearl River, not too far east of New Orleans. Until taken over for missile testing by NASA in the '60s, it was home to Sally's family, and they still have kin in the area. The song was written, of course, before the havoc caused by Katrina this past August, and Sarah evidences concern.

"I haven't been back there, and I haven't been able to contact anybody who is close enough to go see it. I've wondered about it. We have this huge, old family tree...and I want to know if it's still there, or if something happened. Really, there wasn't anything left of the town, so there couldn't have been any buildings knocked down because there weren't any buildings there to begin with. But I would love to be able to go down. Hopefully, a little bit later on, my mom and I, we're trying to plan a trip."

Hannah, the self-described "quiet one," is nonetheless cheerful and eager to volunteer that for her part, she leans toward the more traditional fare on the new disc.

"I love 'Carrick Fergus,' but I also love 'Freight Train Blues,' that's my favorite...just 'cause it's fun, and it has a lot of attitude and cool instrumental parts and stuff, and the vocals are really cool on it, too."

Also on the new album is "Angel Band," a song so closely identified with Ralph Stanley (who was integral to the "O Brother" soundtrack) that many forget that the Peasalls are the ones singing it as the closing credits roll.

"We did it on the actual movie," says Hannah, "At the end of the movie, it's our voices singing 'Angel Band,' and we just fell in love with the song, and John Carter really likes it too."

Hannah's referring to John Carter Cash, who produced and engineered the album with the Peasalls at the same Cash Cabin Studio where much of the later music of his parents Johnny and June Carter Cash was made. With a sense of insight and appreciation far beyond her 12 years, Leah nevertheless can't contain her enthusiasm at being in the presence of so much history.

"'Incredible' is just the only word to describe it. When we're in the cabin recording, and we'll be in between songs, and they'll be mixing or whatever...we'll go out and (sit) down with Johnny Cash's guitar. When I was younger, I wouldn't have known who Johnny Cash was because I just wasn't, you know, informed on country music. But now, I'm like 'Oh my gosh, we got to walk in the place that he walked in.' It's just really cool."

Likewise, Hannah enjoyed working and doing things the "Cash Way." "John Carter is really free, he just makes everything so fun, and he's so laid back."

In addition to recording their own version of the Irish ballad "Carrick Fergus," they take on traditional favorites, "Fair and Tender Ladies" and "The Old Account," all arranged by Hannah and Sarah. It is perhaps on these three cuts that they best show off their knack for finding the right harmonies, usually with Sarah doing alto, Hannah on soprano and Leah filling in the tenor. (Instrumentally, Sarah plays guitar, Hannah plays mandolin, and Leah is the fiddler).

"Most of the time, it just comes naturally," says Leah. "I usually jump to tenor, but sometimes I'm singing bass. We all have really wide ranges, so it always just kind of works out, and I don't think we've ever had to really set a harmony part. Sometimes we'll have to go back and do a couple of changes, but other than that, it usually just comes natural."

The Peasalls first performed about seven years ago at a church service while visiting their grandparents in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. That led to more performances in churches and nursing homes under the name Precious.

In 1999, they auditioned for "O Brother" and were turned down for an on-screen role, but made the soundtrack.

They released their debut, "First Offering" in 2002 on Varese Sarabande with mainly Christian songs. They also sang "On the Sea of Galilee" on last year's "The Unbroken Circle" tribute disc to the Carter Family.

The Peasalls maintain an active touring schedule, and Sarah says it's making that bridge between live performance and recording that she finds especially worthwhile.

"I really enjoy being in the studio and recording because it's kind of a challenge to get the energy that would be there in a live performance, you know. You've got to try to get that to come through the recording. So, I absolutely love to be in the studio. But, also, I love performing for people. That's such a great feeling when you're on stage in front of a bunch of people."

Hannah quickly agrees, adding that - at least, at her age - life on the road is a big part of the adventure as well.

"Of course, the whole being on stage, performing part of it, that's really a lot of fun, especially when you have a fun crowd. It just makes the whole event fun. Then, the traveling, of course. We travel with the family, the whole family comes, and we have six kids altogether, and that's a lot of fun."

Being on stage, she notes, gives each of them a chance to develop their own individual ways of relating to and entertaining a crowd. She knows, for example, what Harpo Marx knew - that you don't have to say anything to get the biggest laugh.

"I'm the only one that doesn't really talk, I'm just kind of the 'quiet one' of the group, so I use facial expressions a lot. Like when Leah and Sarah will get in a spot, or something else, I'll kind of give a (knowing) glance out to the audience."

And, Leah makes it unanimous.

"Being on the road. It's really cool, and you get so many different experiences, so that's probably my favorite part."

The music biz, she understands though, not all fun and games.

"It's really slow. Nobody likes to, like, get things done. That's kind of a bummer. They're all Type B. That's just my feeling. A lot of the people are really down to earth, and you wouldn't really suspect that they would be. But we've met so many people, and all of them have been just incredibly nice and just amazing."

"I love every part of it, really," Sarah chimes in, "but the waiting, I don't love the waiting. There's a lot of waiting in the music business, unfortunately."

"I think," she continues, "as I'm getting older, more in depth with record deals and things like that, it almost seems like...there are times when it's a little more political than all about good music. I hate that it's that way. Like, how you get your songs on the radio, 9 times out of 10, it's how much money your record label has, I think that's a shame. When you have a good song, it should be on the radio, no matter what."

As a recent high school graduate, of course, Sarah is the one with The Future staring her most immediately in the face, but she seems to have made the transition from young girl to young woman with the grounding in faith and common sense that parents Michael and Sally have instilled still intact.

"I'm trying to take it a year at a time. Most likely, I will go to college eventually. I'm not going this year. I'm taking a year off just to focus on my music, just really get my focus on that, really work on writing. I really would love to produce, I absolutely love to produce, and I'm kind of trying to head in that direction. So, I'm just praying about it and taking it a year at a time, see what God wants me to do and what my next step should be...I've thought about studying music, but then at the same time, I really enjoy counseling. I would like to be a Christian counselor or something like that."

Although the youngest of the performing sisters, Leah my have the clearest view of the road ahead.

"I really hope that we can keep on doing this, and we are taking this year by year and day by day. But I love the entertainment industry. I would love to become a film editor and producer, and I write stories and plots and stuff like that, so I'm always working on that. I would love to be in film, but I also love the music industry, and if this is what the Lord wants us to do, so be it."