GLENS FALLS -- Creating songs out of the substance of the daily news is an act almost as old as the creation of music itself. Even in modern times, music has been used as a bearer of the news and a commentator upon it -- Leadbelly's ``Titanic,'' Neil Young's ``Ohio'' and Dead Kennedys' ``Holiday in Cambodia'' being just a few examples from past decades.

But with the ever-increasing scope of modern media, music isn't really needed to disseminate the news the way it was in the days of the ballad-as-broadside. That doesn't mean, though, that musicians can't be moved to comment.

With ``Fishwrap,'' which opened Tuesday at the Adirondack Theatre Festival, Gilles Chiasson and Bill Castellino asked a few friends in the contemporary New York songwriting scene to join them in creating new tunes about news stories from the past 10 months -- with 9/11 being an obvious linchpin.

The thematic revue -- which features the voices of Renee Borys, Eric Collins, Maureen Russell and Jim Price -- is certainly percolating with ideas, but few smack with the power of a good '60s protest relic, or even with a punk-rock rant.

It seems the news might be better broadcast in more simple, vibrant forms than show tunes -- even show tunes this hip and rock-inflected.

Still, a few numbers peek out above the others, and a some are great pieces of work.

Music Director David Nehls' ``Our World'' paints a romance amid the violence in the Middle East. ``Blue,'' penned by Chiasson and Michael Scheman, tackles a vandal's destruction of a Barnett Newman painting with a busy but effective vocal arrangement. And Lori Fischer's ``Medal of Honor'' divides its contrapuntal melody among three members of a young family, including the mother who died while on police duty in the World Trade Center.

The rest of the songs cover topics that include the Olympics, missing children, environmentalism and John Aschroft.

Borys is the standout voice in the cast, and she shines especially on the hokey country of Chiasson and Chris Roberts' ``Buy a New Life.'' Maureen Russell's voice is too often stretched tensely to the top of its range, with little support underneath, yet she is fantastic on the solo ``The One Who's Lost.''

Visually, ``Fishwrap'' is far more exciting than the average revue. Neil Kerr's graphics float on a huge screen behind Nehls' upstage piano -- and the main title graphic is echoed in paint on the newsprint-covered floor.

``Fishwrap'' is too of-the-moment to have life much beyond this initial production, but on the whole it's an effort worth seeing -- if only to hear what's on the mind of Manhattan's muses.