But amid the danceable grooves, this is one serious CD. Buoyant slide guitar and zydeco accordion can only soften the pain in Tommy Malone's weathered vocals on "Why Do You Hurt Me So." The churning "Love Somebody" has a catchy hook, but it's sung to someone "scared of livin', afraid to die." Songs to the dead and dying continue the elegiac theme of "Angel To Be" on the quartet's previous Annunciation. Still, "Sarita" sounds so darn much fun, you hardly realize it ends as an epitaph. "Don't Let 'Em" seeps in enigmas of the ante-bellum South. Bittersweet mystery lingers amid the ghosts and magnolia-scented shadows here.

-- Bruce Sylvester