Songs about recreational fishing aren't exactly a staple of American folk and popular music, but they're hardly absent. Much of the time "fishing" is a stand-in for something else that starts with f, as in Texas songster Henry Thomas's famous 1928 recording of the bawdy "Fishing Blues." Fishing Music II, though, is mostly, if not quite exclusively, about literal fishing.

If you have no interest in fishing -- I last fished when I was 10 or 11 years old, and that isn't because I live far from any pastoral fishing hole -- you may think, reasonably enough, that this CD has nothing for you. You would be wrong. Frankly, I don't see how anybody who likes music could dislike this record. More than fishing alone, it celebrates the communion of human beings and the natural world.

It says here that Ben Winship and David Thompson "both live in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem," by which I presume is meant Idaho and Montana. They're folk singers and avid fly fishermen, and they're friendly with some better-known roots musicians (Tim O'Brien, Rob Ickes, Billy Novick, Jeffrey Foucault) who apparently share that passion and who contribute splendidly to the proceedings.

I don't know how Aoife O'Donovan -- whose usual gig is with Crooked Still -- feels about fishing, but her ghostly vocal on the Carter Family's dreamy "The Winding Stream" provides some truly memorable moments. Tim O'Brien and sister Mollie turn on the droll charm for the Louis Armstrong/Bing Crosby hit "Gone Fishin'," written by Charles and Nick Kenny. Another standout is "Wade in the Water," one of those venerable spirituals of which one never tires, terrifically sung by Margo Valiante.

Elsewhere, Winship, Thompson and associates explore various rivers of acoustic music -- besides folk and pre-rock pop, some vintage jazz under clarinet master Billy Novick's guidance (e.g., Bud Freeman's "The Eel's Nephew"). The instrumental pieces are about fishing only by title choice, of course. But Fishing Music II is all one flowing stream, and listeners will enjoy a very pleasant, lovingly executed musical trip on its waters.