A Bag of Shells is an album of music written for film by Jamie Saft which was released on the Tzadik label in 2010.[1] It features the music that Saft wrote and recorded for the documentaries Murderball (2005) and God Grew Tired of Us (2006), Dear Talula (2007) and Brooklyn Exile (2007).
In his review for Allmusic, Thom Jurek notes that:
A Bag of Shells looks at another side of Saft's career, his soundtrack work. Beginning in 2005, Saft began scoring films. Here are excerpts of four scores in an eclectic arrangement not sequenced according to film origin, but programmed aesthetically... It all displays Saft's originality, diversity, and exemplary musicianship. A Bag of Shells is an album that asks as many questions as the films it illustrates do, much to the listener's delight.
Tracks 1, 6, 11 & 14 from Murderball (2005), tracks 5, 10 & 12 from God Grew Tired of Us (2006), tracks 2–4, 7–9, 13 & 15 from Dear Talula (2007) and track 16 from Brooklyn Exile (2007).