Pearly's Listening Lounge

I recently came by a bit of a windfall of new music and am really digging into it. Two favorites musicians of mine have new albums out--Lucinda Williams and Son Volt--that sound, after a few spins, like they are good/but not great. The Son Volt album "The Search" has a couple of killer tracks with the wonderful wail of the high-lonesome pedal steel that hearken back to the sounds of the original lineup of the band. There are certainly some misfires on this one, though. I still can't judge how it will line up next to their last release.

As for the Lucinda CD, "West," her voice is the voice of all voices, so she could sing me the phone book and it would grab me by the soul. There are some duds here, but I have a feeling this album will grow on me. After all, the music itself is more like a canvas for her to color, shade, rip, mend, and bend her angelically ragged, whiskey- and nicotine-soaked vocals.

However, there are two new albums that have really been kicking my ass. The new Wilco album, "Sky Blue Sky," which isn't set for release until May, is a vast improvement over the band's last studio snoozefest. It's good to hear the newest incarnation of this band is firing on all cylinders in the studio much in the same way that its fairly recent live album does. Jeff Tweedy as soul singer works for my hearing ears.

The other CD that has been getting tons of spins is "Hardwire Healing" by The Dexateens. This Alabama-based group just brings the best shades of country-tinged rock. I can certainly hear shades of Mark Olsen-era Jayhawks as well as Drive-By Truckers stylings (no big surprise since the album was co-produced by DBT-er Patterson Hood as well as longstanding DBT producer David Barbe). While the music certainly draws from these influences and more, the final product is a sound all their own. Check them out at myspace.com/dexateens. The tune "Neil Armstrong" is a particularly catchy ditty...and the reason I got teh album (it was on a sampler CD from Paste magazine).