Jim Lauderdale, Pretty Close to the Truth (Atlantic)
Lauderdale makes no bones about expanding from a straight country format, though there's plenty of "country" in his voice.
Singer-songwriter, Lauderdale first surfaced three years ago with an excellent country-oriented album Planet of Love (Reprise) that received great reviews but didn't sell. It was probably too experimental for the Nashville machine to get behind it. On this his second album, Lauderdale makes no bones about expanding from a straight country format, though there's plenty of "country" in his voice, and steel guitars color virtually every track. Lauderdale's a strong songwriter who has a firm grasp on what and how he wants to say. His greatest strength however, is his voice. His phrasing is impeccable, listen to the way he bends the notes and the words on the chorus of "Grace's Song" or lets loose on the sparse bluesy, "Pretty Close to the Truth." He also has a knack for making his songs instinctually funky, whether on "Run Like You," where be combines bluegrass with a semi-swamp groove, the all-out soul ballad, "I'm On Your Side," or the rocking "When the Devil Starts Crying." While there's nothing as immediately grabbing as "King of Broken Hearts" from his first album, this is in every way a solid effort. It's everything a country album should be, but also shows Lauderdale to be a budding master of American music forms.