Where Watermelon's first half is unabashedly fun stuff --capped by the old-school, barroom shout-along "Bang Bang Lulu" -- its final few songs show that NMA is capable of truly timeless music. Its breezy arrangement of gospel songbird Odetta Gordon's "Deep Blue Sea" truly soars, and the motley collection of a chorus on their own pastoral hymn "Mean Ol' Wind Died Down" imprints the song with front-porch, prayer-circle ecstasy. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band gives "Horseshoe" the best barn-dance coda in recent memory, which, bridged by atmospheric, evening-time cricket chirps, bleeds straight into deceased Hill Country patriarch Otha Turner's fife-and-drum lullaby "Bounce Ball." It's a tender, personal way to end an album that reveals these All Stars as the brilliant heirs to the North Mississippi's potent musical legacy. R.L. would be proud.