It's weird reviewing the soundtrack to a film you've never seen, or indeed, heard of. One of those random sequences of events that occur when you get sent music from such a wide spectrum of labels. So, as I delve into the wonders of Google to help me out, I discover that this film was one of the few cinematic highlights of this years SXSW festival. The soundtrack was produced my long-time film and TV scorer James Lavino with the music performed by Lavino, Radiohead's Colin Greenwood, and Lee Sargent & Tyler Sargent, from the band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. An impressive line-up... So, it turns out that Woodpecker is about the excitement in the small town of Brinkley, Arkansas, when birdwatchers start to report sightings of an ivory-billed woodpecker, a species of bird that was believed to be extinct. This sounds like a relatively straightforward documentary until you discover that two actors are introduced into the mix, just to spice things up a bit. Now, I'm writing this whilst listening to the album itself and, unfortunately, the synopsis of the film is infinitely more interesting that the music itself.What we have here is a by-the-numbers approach to soundtracking rural America. There's acres of soft acoustic guitar and folk-tinged tunes, gentle swathes of music that drift past you on a Summer's breeze. It's all very "nice", but doesn't exactly involve the listener. It's perhaps a perfect example of the problems that can happen when you sever the tie between a musical score and its associated event. There's not really much else I can say about it - if you're after some good folk music, try the new James Yorkston album. If you enjoyed the film, well, it might be worth seeking this out, but I can only imagine you'd do that if you've got particularly bad case of insomnia. 48%James Lavino on Myspace