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After finishing the '80s on the top of his game as one of the best singer-songwriters in captivity, John Hiatt has spent much of this decade playing the court jester on adult contemporary stations, a sort of comic-relief sideshow to slip in between the unremitting earnestness of cuts by

On his first solo album, Meet John Doe, the vocals were pushed forward as far as possible, establishing Doe as a frontman in the wake of the temporary demise of X. Combined with unimaginative roots-pop arrangements the results were somewhat less than spectacular. Not surprisingly the album was quickly forgotten.

Let's cut to the chase: Gone is Dwight Yoakam's best record. The writing is top notch--all the heartbreak and loneliness we've come to expect. That voice, oh that voice: it's still the epitome of high and lonesome. And Gone isn't

Directing his artistic vision outward again, Bruce Springsteen returns to the role of social critic. The album and its 12 songs will inevitably draw comparisons to the 1982 masterpiece Nebraska, an accidental collection of lost characters, bad luck, and meanness. Recalling that album, Springsteen said in 1990 that he hadn&

On Blue Rodeo's Five Days In July album of a couple years back, the band consistently produced track after track of terrific country-flavored rock 'n' roll. A very successful, very talented quintet with platinum sales in their Canadian homeland, they've been trying to crack

Well there it was, September. It was already gettin' chilly, it was raining, like it's known to do occasionally up here in Maine, the landscape was quickly emptying out, and I got a call from my first love. We hadn't spoken in some time. How