Stranger Things Have Happened

No one's going to believe it, but this is a good album, from no less. Most of the songs are sung with passion and the voice is much better than it was on, say, 28 years earlier. What's more, reveals himself as a solid rocker, starting from a idiom but working with lots of wattage on the instruments and no trace of wimpy affectation in the playing. A few notable friends are aboard in addition to his direct collaborator and co-producer, -- , , and among them. There are songs drawn from across the spectrum of 's career, including a gorgeous, -style cover of that made this reviewer smile so emphatically it was mixed with tears of joy; the exquisitely funny a delightfully wry account of life on the road that includes and and some of the most charmingly silly choruses ever heard in a legitimate song; a very personal car song that may be particularly potent to middle-aged survivors of the 1960s; and a / song on which mostly plays acoustic banjo, and which is so beguiling that one wishes he'd do an entire album in that idiom, style, and sound. Not every song here is quite that good, and three of the numbers probably could have been dispensed with, but eight out of 11 isn't bad. ~ Bruce Eder