Sounds of Heartache: Alison Krauss and Me'Shell Ndegeocello

IT WOULD BE hard to think of two female singers more different than Alison Krauss and Me'Shell Ndegeocello. Krauss, a straight European-American from the Midwestern heartland of Illinois, is a bluegrass fiddler whose biggest influence is the Stanley Brothers. Ndegeocello, a gay African-American from the streets of D.C., is a funk bassist whose biggest influence is Prince. And yet, on their new albums, Krauss' Forget About It and Ndegeocello's Bitter, the two women have made such sharp breaks with their past that they have wound up in the same place.