As protest albums go, To All We Stretch the Open Arm is soft on protest and heavy on fuzzier themes of humanity and solidarity -- but in today's political climate, which we're told has become increasingly divided in the last two decades, a message with the potential to cross party lines (or at least to inspire a handful of K Records fans to turn away from their hedonistic, Dub Narcotic Sound System-soundtracked dance orgies for a moment and contemplate the weightier things in life) is an important message indeed.

The record's centerpieces are covers of relatively recent protest tunes -- a beautifully ambling take on Bob Dylan's plea for mutual understanding, "Dear Landlord", and an airy version of Leonard Cohen's "Story of Isaac", the dark claustrophobia of the original tempered by limber Spanish guitar runs and graceful accordion accompaniment. Both pieces provide the tone of understated encouragement that carries the rest of the album, particularly in two originals from Mirah herself, "Monument" and "The Light", which are general (if not quite generic) activist hymns buoyed by the Black Cat Orchestra's gentle instrumental setup -- nylon guitar, cello, accordion, double bass and drums.

The album's latter half takes advantage of this setup as it reaches for protest songs from decades, even centuries, past. Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's black-humored, indignantly Marxist "What Keeps Man Alive?" is given a deadpan makeover by Mirah and her cohorts; "Si me quieres escribir" and "Si se calla el Cantor", the first an anonymous instrumental and the second an Argentinean call to arms by Horacio Guarany, are each treated to quietly intense arrangements; and Stephen Foster's compassionate meditation on poverty, "Hard Times", is effectively delivered with just accordion and Mirah's cotton-soft voice.

If there's one flaw to this collection of motivational tunes, it's that many of Mirah's original musings ("If we believe in the fight then we're all saved" -- "Monument"; "If heaven is the future then why do you refuse to go there now?" -- "The Light") and her band's spare arrangements lack the teeth to mark a more specific position, politically or philosophically. On the other hand, maybe generality -- the kind of spiritual encouragement that gives people reason to believe in other people -- is, for once, something to aim for. If so, To All We Stretch the Open Arm is right on target.