With themes like loss and longing, Stumble Into Grace hits blue notes but rarely stumbles. Emmylou Harris wrote most of the songs, and she furnishes them with a ghostly sparseness. She's also got well-chosen guests: Linda Ronstadt, fellow reedy-voiced triller Jane Siberry, and Jill Cunniff (Luscious Jackson), who cowrote a track. The results are lovely, heartbreaking, and just diffident enough to get perspective on this bittersweet old world.

