Pitchfork

Hearing footsteps, Zach Braff? Training Day and Before Sunrise/Sunset star Ethan Hawke does the Garden State director one better for the soundtrack to The Hottest State, an upcoming film based on Hawke's debut novel. Not content just to curate established songs, Hawke asked artists to record tunes penned by singer/songwriter Jesse Harris, whom Hawke knew even before Harris wrote Norah Jones hit "Don't Know Why". Everyone from Jones to Feist to Willie Nelson answered the call for the disc, which arrives Aug. 7 via Sony/ATV Music Publishing imprint Hickory Records.

On one advance mp3 from the album, Bright Eyes veers slightly from the slick production of new album Cassadaga, trading in trad country-folk for bells and swirling electric guitars. Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst picks the heartbroken "Big Old House", from Harris' 2002 album Without You, which adds the heft of maturity to Obert's much-copied quaver: "I'll love you if you've changed," he sings. Longtime collaborator Mike Mogis engineered, mixed and also adds pedal steel.

Cat Power also lends her naked vocals, to "It's Alright to Fail" (from Harris' 1999 album, Jesse Harris and the Ferdinandos). The result isn't too far from Jones at her most miserable. "Tell me, don't leave," Cat Power's Chan Marshall sighs, over slow, forlorn acoustic guitar and banjo by Harris, who also provides the song's spare production.

[from The Hottest State OST; due 8/7/07 on Hickory Records]

Photos by Paparazzi by Appointment (Bright Eyes) and Kathryn Yu (Cat Power)