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Beneath My Wheels
Kevin Welch

Country - Kevin Welch - Beneath My Wheels Cd

The dazzling songwriting and masterful balance of artfulness and soulfulness that Kevin Welch served up on his first three albums--1990's self-titled debut, 1992's Western Beat, and 1995's Life Down Here on Earth--have made him a cult figure among connoisseurs of cutting-edge country songwriting. Along the way, Welch's vivid originals have been covered by everyone from Waylon Jennings and Roger Miller to Ricky Skaggs and Trisha Yearwood. Nineteen ninety-nine's Beneath My Wheels, his first album in four years, is nothing short of a masterpiece. It's also a reminder of the great music that often results when an eminently gifted artist takes off the commercial blinders of country radio and simply follows his noblest instincts. In Welch's case, these instincts run from `70s-style California country-rock to hardcore blues-gospel to searing blues-rock (Mike Henderson's electric lead work is a driving force throughout). No doubt quite a few of these songs will be plundered by far less imaginative name-brand artists, but why bother hearing greatness secondhand when you can go right to the source?

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Crusades of the Restless Knights
Ray Wylie Hubbard

Country - Ray Wylie Hubbard - Crusades of the Restless Knights Cd

Nearly titled Ten Zen Sins, Ray Wylie Hubbard's second Rounder release extends and deepens the spiritual tug-of-war of his mature, postoutlaw work. Starting with the thunderous, folk-rock curse of "Crows," the album moves through tent-revival grooves, barrelhouse odes to red dresses, bottleneck meditations on plane wrecks, spare talking blues, elliptical ballads, and bluegrass-laced messages of hope. Rather than offer platitudes or pat answers, Hubbard tests the mysteries he finds with always one more intense temptation, one more unsettling question. Such is Hubbard's dense lyrical vision, and his musical settings are just as telling. For the first time he co-produces with Lloyd Maines, emphasizing the sounds of cutting slide guitar, Dobro, and mandolin and accenting his melodies with female harmony from Patty Griffin, Lisa Mednick, and Terri Hendrix. At a time when many singer-songwriters are courting the adult-contemporary audience with safe, pop-oriented fare, Hubbard's lyrical crusade remains tense, chancy, and remarkably wise.

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Forget About It
Alison Krauss

Country - Alison Krauss - Forget About It Cd

When you possess a great pop voice, it's inevitable that you'll someday make a pop album, and Alison Krauss has finally made hers. Instead of bidding for radio airplay with the extravagant, extroverted pop of Shania Twain, Trisha Yearwood, or Celine Dion, Krauss has crafted an intimate, understated chamber-pop album reminiscent of Joni Mitchell's Blue or Rosanne Cash's Interiors. The material comes from such mainstream-pop writers as Michael McDonald, Todd Rundgren, Allen Reynolds, and Danny O'Keefe, but Krauss the producer gives the songs a distinctive spin. She layers the harmonies of her regular Union Station band, the Cox Family singers, pianist Matt Rollings, drummer Jim Keltner, and mandolinist Sam Bush to create a lush, hushed sound that's neither traditional bluegrass nor electric country-pop. Krauss multitracks her own fiddle parts and blends them with Jerry Douglas's Dobro to create an unorthodox string-quartet sound. In this setting her tender, translucent vocals capture that moment when a relationship is unraveling before the lovers are ready to let it go.

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Live In Texas
Lyle Lovett

Country - Lyle Lovett - Live In Texas Cd

One decade's oddity is the next decade's institution. Or at least that's been the case with Lyle Lovett. The Lone Star eccentric emerged in the 1980s ostensibly as a country artist, but it became clear pretty quickly that a Southern accent and a pair of cowboy boots does not a Nashville favorite make. In time, however, Lovett's free-range brand of swing, blues, gospel, folk, and whatever has been embraced by a coterie of fans who have as little interest in genres as their hero. Live in Texas is something of a valentine to them--as well as an in-concert 13-year career summary for the uninitiated. Rife with live staples ("That's Right," "If I Had a Boat," "She's No Lady," and "North Dakota," which features an appearance by Rickie Lee Jones), the 14-track showcase certifies what loyalists have known for years: Lovett is one of the best bandleaders around. He and his crack crew get big and get small as needed, punching up uptempo numbers with brass or stripping down to the bare essentials for ballads. Taking it all in, one can't help concluding there's absolutely nothing odd about that.

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Long Way Home From Anywhere
Bruce Robison

Country - Bruce Robison - Long Way Home From Anywhere Cd

James Taylor has cast a large shadow over today's country hit-makers, but for the most part, Nashville's earnest young troubadours more closely resemble such watered-down Taylor imitators as Dan Fogelberg or J.D. Souther than the man himself. Bruce Robison, the long tall Texan who married Kelly Willis, does one of the best country impersonations of Taylor because he understands the value of understatement. On his sophomore album, Robison fills his lyrics with so many visual details and gives his folkie melodies such a relaxed flow that he can afford a low-key, seductive vocal delivery, trusting the songs to take care of themselves. His subject matter--a waitress in love with a Vietnam soldier, a guy who wants to be more than a best friend to a woman, a giddy newlywed groom, a lonely man on the road--is well worn, and, except for one Western swing tune, the music has few traces of honky-tonk, but it is elegant singer/songwriter pop in the best Taylor tradition.

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Return Of The Grievous Angel: Tribute To Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons (Tribute)

Country - Gram Parsons (Tribute) - Return Of The Grievous Angel: Tribute To Gram Parsons Cd

The gentle hand of Emmylou Harris guides this tribute to ill-fated country-rock avatar Gram Parsons, which goes a long way toward explaining why this star-studded salute avoids the pitfalls that befall many such projects. Harris got her start harmonizing with the patron saint of alternative country, contributing mightily to Parsons's two early 1970s solo albums and reviving selections from his small-but-indispensable oeuvre throughout her career. She has a vested interest in finding a true connection between her former benefactor and this cast of Parsons partisans. Here she bands together a flock of followers who range from obvious offspring (Wilco, Gillian Welch, Whiskeytown) to not-so-evident disciples (Beck, Pretenders, Sheryl Crow). Parsons's partner in the Flying Burrito Brothers, Chris Hillman, teams with Steve Earle on "High Fashion Queen," and David Crosby (like Parsons and Hillman, an ex-Byrd) joins Lucinda Williams on "Return of the Grievous Angel." Harris harmonizes with Beck on "Sin City" and shares the mic with Crow on "Juanita," one of the collection's highlights. Ultimately, Harris has assembled a homage that would've pleased her old mentor.

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