If Crooked Still never play another note, they’ve at least closed the circle with the deluxe reissue of 2006’s Shaken by a Low Sound. 

Released in December 2021, just in time to make for an official 15th-anniversary commemoration, the updated version features live selections from singer Aoife O’Donovan, banjoist player Gregory Liszt, bassist Corey DiMario and cellist Rushad Eggleston’s maiden gig on Nov. 20, 2001, to their most-recent reunion on Dec. 15, 2019, when Eggleston rejoined his former band and his replacements, fiddler Brittany Haas and cellist Tristan Clarridge. 

These historically significant tracks – including Gillian Welch’s “Orphan Girl“ from ’01 and “Mountain Jumper” from ’19 among others – sound terrific. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for the June 21, 2007, performances of “Dark Hollow” and “Little Sadie,” which, while well-played, resemble bootleg audience recordings. 

New studio takes of album tracks, including O’Donovan’s solo-piano version of “Ain’t No Grave (Sparse)” and an instrumental “Ecstasy” featuring Hass – who did not play on Shaken – round it out. 

The album proper is, of course, Crooked Still’s most-intoxicating release. A young-and-hungry band with unorthodox instrumentation and a fearless, pre-I’m With Her O’Donovan on the mic playing bluegrass-cum-classical takes on traditional numbers like “Can’t You Hear Me Callin’,” and “Wind and Rain,” Robert Johnson’s “Come on in My Kitchen” and other far-flung choices was a refreshing change in 2006 and retains its specialness all these years later.