Something went out of the world when they invented Prozac. I mean, it has helped millions of people, but it's awfully easy. Lost your true love? Pop a pill. Killed the babies? Pop two. And who's to say we're all supposed to be happy all the time, anyway?

Phil Cooper, Margaret Nelson and Kate Early are providing an antidote, and showing the sinewy beauty to be found in the dour old music. It's the beauty of winter-bare fields and gray ocean, simple and internal. If you're in the mood, you can find a sense of connection with the ages: Grief is timeless. For their latest, "Return No More," they compiled traditional pieces like the grim "Cruel Mother," (kids slain) the resolute "The Cuckoo/Leatherwing Bat" (true love untrue - but to a bright arrangement of a lively tune); reflective ones like "Spencer the Rover" (dad comes home, and likes it) with an upbeat tempo, and "Barbry Allen (mysteriously fatal co-dependence)" set to such a lively, even-paced tune (Phil's) that you might never want to sing the lugubrious old wheeze that everyone knows again. And I liked "Saints and Sinners," which they describe as an anthem, for the chorus' pretty image of a distant bell. It sounds so traditional that only the vocabulary gives it away -- the words are easy to follow.

The trio's distinct voices -- Margaret's full, deep one, Phil softer and Kate sharper and higher -- mesh well in harmony, and the addition of bass viol or a bass guitar to Phil's complex and creative guitar work brought in a subtle rhythmic element you had to pay attention to to notice. Paying attention is helpful, for there is much to hear. Some of Phil's guitar playing appears as sprightly instrummentals, as well.

You might wonder if the disc is a response to Sept. 11. There's no reference to the disaster on the jewel case, but on their Web site, Phil wrote, in May, that the songs were ones they had been singing in the previous months. What else would be appropriate then? Other releases have generous elements of love and happiness and even silliness: "Return No More" fits in the discography like sober pinstripes in the closet.

One has to hope the title -- from a Scottish song about the Highland Clearances of the 1840s -- hasn't got any hidden meanings. We need these guys. The Cooper, Nelson and Early will be in Shaker Heights for a house concert Nov. 1 -- All Saints Day seems perfect for music like this. It's a day late, I think -- can you imagine what they might do with Halloween with their roots so deep among the people who invented it?