WHERE THE HEART IS has been getting big pub, as they say, over the last couple of weeks. This is an unabashed "chickflick," one that women will go to with their girlfriends while their boyfriends are at home watching the WWF or reading Penthouse with one hand. Accordingly, one does not expect to find Limp Biskit or Rob Zombie within 100 miles of the movie soundtrack. And, one would be right.

The problem here, however, is that in certain circles ---especially with the suits who seem to run "literock" (an internal oxymoron if there ever was one) radio and the Nashville music scene --- mellow is equated with bland. As a result we have on the WHERE THE HEART IS soundtrack...blandness. Take these performers. Please! Martina McBride; The Corrs; 3 of Hearts (someone's wet dream answer to the Dixie Chicks); and a horribly misused, underutilized and wasted Sara Evans. When things do rock out, who do we get but Shannon Curfman, who sounds like Bonnie Raitt after a really bad night.

Now, what is wrong with this picture- er, soundtrack of this picture? Again, I understand that they wanted mellow, and they wanted women. Well...how about Gillian Welch? Allison Moorer? Julie Miller? Mellow, beautiful voices and heartrending songs with some of the best lyrics being written today, but hardly bland. What about Joan Osborne? Well, just to illustrate that bad always drags good down, Joan Osborne, absent lo these many years, is back, and here, on what may be the worst track on the album, a hip-hop throwaway with Tommy Sims with the embarrassing title of "Rowdy Booty Time." Lyle Lovett is on here, too, with his listenable take on "What'd I Say." Ultimately, however, it's a disappointment. There is no point in doing a cover of a classic like this unless there is something new to say, something to add, to it. Lovett has the chops to do it; however he doesn't do it here.

All is not totally lost here.. Emmylou Harris and Patty Griffin provide a decent "Beyond the Blue" (helped, no doubt, by the presence of Buddy Miller behind the console). And speaking of covers, I would refer Mr. Lovett (and you) to Lonestar's take on the Platters' classic "Only You (and You Alone)." Lonestar takes this close-to-a-half-century-old song and deftly transcends time and genre to make it their own. Finally, John Hiatt, missing in action since 1997, provides the soundtrack's other winner, "Let It Slip Away," classic Hiatt that will have you wearing out the "REPEAT" function on your CD player.

WHERE THE HEART IS will probably do boffo box office; more power to all concerned. But people, if you're gonna do a soundtrack, spend some money and get good people. More than two or three, anyhow. They're out there. And you won't put your audience --- and the men who love them --- to sleep.