What if Morrissey made a country record? It would suck, right? Yeh. Well, what if some guys from Raleigh made a record with some damn fine instrumental work, headed up by a vocalist ready to share his discontent? Would it suck? It doesn't. It's Whiskeytown's Strangers Almanac. And, in all fairness I should say here that Ryan Adams (Whiskeytown's vocalist) sounds nothing like Morrissey.

Somewhere in the dark corners of the overlapping edges of Rock and Country, there's a handful of bands making some pretty solid music that neither Rock nor Country fans seem too eager to embrace. Think Cowboy Junkies (the name says it all). Whiskeytown's Stranger's Almanac locks together a group of tracks that instrumentally are undeniably Country, yet, their vocalist endows them with a powerful (hankering?) sorrow that seems decidedly urbane. Country sound with city sensibilities. Well-crafted, great production and no mention of John Deere. It's got my vote.

-James P. Wisdom