Jim Lauderdale

Recorded (with Neil Brockbank and the late Bobby Irwin) in the English capital with long-time friend Nick Lowe’s band and featuring songs written with John Oates and the estimable Dan Penn.

This Nashvillan hero’s work (including collaborations with Elvis Presley’s guitar great James Burton and Grateful Deadhead Robert Hunter) has seen him referred to as the ‘songwriter’s songwriter’ an accolade in full evidence here. With familiar themes of time running out, the tick-tock of the clock, getting a move on or moving out, matters of the heart are the (he)art of the matter, the mourning after the night before. A strong resolve is the only way to solve these predicaments, plaints that in Lauderdale’s hands rise above cliché and archetype.

Ivories a-tinkle as our hero’s eyes twinkle despite (still) being made to wait, however, this is one worth hanging round for. Burning yearning abounds on the beseeching ‘Love you more’ a languid lament of missed opportunities. Or is it?

The Staxy ‘You came to get me’ is a full-on horn of plenty, a slow-grooving chug in the vein of Van Morrison. Brassy and classy. The question-less demand of ‘What have you got to lose’ is a heartfelt reach-out, betterment is an option should you choose not to lose, take heed to succeed.

The sombre Latin-inflected ‘If I can’t resist’ with its emotions-in-check leads into standout ‘Don’t let yourself get in the way’, a masterful self-introspective in barroom bawling, an alliterative articulation of the patterns of habit that prevent progress: ‘going round and around and around again’. Dizzying in many ways so let yourself (verti)go.

The Beatles’ passion for countryfied swing-beat can be heard in the rock and soul-searching ‘No right to be wrong’, exemplary merciless Mersey back-beating.

This another delectable slice of Americana pie from Fortress Lauderdale. Tuck in.