Fuckin' All Music Guide. It's Sunday, I'm operating on less than two hours of sleep, and the only thing I know for sure about my review of Paul Burch and the WPA Ballclub's Blue Notes is that it's going to mention how Burch sounds just like Dylan during his country years (Nashville Skyline, in particular). But at AMG, the comparison has already been made: "It's impossible to hear this without being frequently reminded of Bob Dylan in his Nashville Skyline phase of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s." Great, so now I have to come up with something different.

See, us reviewers like to pretend that we know everything, but of course, we don't. Because he or she can't possibly know everything about every single artist being reviewed, the reviewer often relies on outside sources for information. So here's what I've learned: Paul Burch is in Lambchop, the more quirky neo-country outfit on Merge Records, and this is his third solo album (although his first for Merge). Pretty good detective work, huh?

But that's the thing with Paul Burch. There's just not that much to say about him. If you've heard one song from Dylan's country years-- "Lay Lady Lay," for instance-- you pretty much know what Burch's voice sounds like. There's a little Hank Williams and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and maybe even some Steve Earle, but that's fair enough. Jesus, Burch even looks like a young Bob Dylan in the album photography, giving that piercing, toothpick glare in one picture and a knowing, cigar-bite smile in another.

Musically speaking, Burch and his band also have much in common with the aforementioned artists. Like most of the album, the opening number, "Willpower," is in no rush to go anywhere at all. The deliberate bass lines and drumbeats back Burch's soft, nasal vocals. Accompanied by an atmospheric guitar, he croons during the chorus, "I lay down on the railroad track/ I heard the whistle blow and eased my body back/ And then I sat down in the mud/ All my willpower's gone." If you're a country music fan, you've heard this before. But if you're a country music fan, you also likely crave the familiar themes: vice, love, faith and death.

While the Dylan comparisons are inevitable, Paul Burch's country influences are obviously broad. On "Long Distance Call," the album's fastest track, he belts out in a fine Elvis imitation: "I'm gonna rock/ I'm gonna rock/ I'm gonna rock and make sweet love to you." He's even got that quavering, swallowed voice thing down. If bluegrass founder Bill Monroe hadn't died four years ago, he might sue Burch for "How Do I Know," which sounds as if it were written 50 years ago. And I'm convinced that Burch didn't actually write "Oh My Darlin'," as he claims. It has to be some long-lost cut by the western swing legend Bob Wills. (I'll fight this 'til the day I die.)

It was only a matter of time before North Carolina-based Merge Records released a straightforward, neo-traditionalist country record such as this. In a way, doing so lends credibility to the bands on their roster who make innovative, blasphemous contortions of traditional music styles. And I'm not complaining. Coping with a hangover bigger than heaven, I found Blue Notes a pleasant listen. But, like the title itself, the album is relatively unimaginative.

-Ryan Kearney