The soundtrack to HBO's award-winning western series is as mischievous and grim as the town that serves as its namesake. Composer David Schwartz (Northern Exposure) provides the rousing title sequence with a theme that blends classic cowboy motifs with spooky bits of worldbeat flavor that reflect Deadwood's multi-cultural locals and hellfire and brimstone proselytizing. Like The Sopranos, modern songs rarely occur before the closing credits, so the producers have integrated audio clips from some of the town's most creative and colorful orators -- mainly Al Swearangen whose electric vocabulary reflects the prefix of his last name -- to fill in the gaps. For the most part, Deadwood plays like a country-folk jukebox with a little piano blues thrown in for good measure, but there are notable highlights including Michael Hurley's amiable "Hog of the Forsaken," the late June Carter Cash's gorgeous and sparse rendition of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" and Lyle Lovett's "Old Friend," a song that poignantly followed the death of one of the show's central figureheads Wild Bill Hickock. [The soundtrack is also available in a Clean Version that omits all of the "offending" sound bytes.] ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide