Electric Shaver

The title says it all. After several years of acoustic-based country, and his son have decided to up the ampage and deliver . Theoretically, this is a good concept, but too much of the record sounds forced, as if blues-rock licks were grafted onto outlaw honky tonk backing tracks. Such grandstanding tends to obscure the songs, but then again, the rocking tracks on aren't particularly strong, either. The opening pair of and are cliche-ridden and awkward, two things has never been. However, things start looking up around the charming shuffle From that point on (with an exception or two), things are laid-back and natural. The songs resonate and the performances are organic, not forced. As the Cajun-flavored the honky tonk ballad the swinging 's sweet midtempo country-pop tune indicate, the are at their best when they let things flow, since the results are unself-consciously eclectic and quite charming. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine