“Jeff Bridges” by Jeff Bridges

photo courtesy of theabout.com

The self-titled album is parts country, blues, jazz and folk and is lazy and laidback just like the actor turned singer’s personality. The album is, frankly, too lazy and laidback. Many of the lyrics in the songs are hard to decipher as Bridges mumbles and whispers his way through a good portion of the tracks.

Bridges wrote two of the songs on this album by himself: “Falling Short” and “Tumbling Vine.” Neither of the Bridges-penned tunes really stand out though.

The best tunes on this record, “Everything But Love” and “Maybe I Missed the Point” were both written by John Goodwin. “Everything But Love” is a nice song about how you could essentially have everything in the world, but it wouldn’t mean much if you didn’t have love. The song also has a really nice whining steel guitar on the track.

“Proud to Be Here” by Trace Adkins

Trace Adkins’ 10th studio album, “Proud to Be Here” is probably one of his best complete albums of his career.

“Proud to Be Here” has 10 tracks, mostly dealing with love and family that all thankfully sound like true country music. The highlight of this album really is the fact that there isn’t any “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” or “I Got My Game On” type tracks on it. They’re all solid.

Maybe the two best tracks on the entire album are the album’s final two tracks: “Poor Folks” and “Always Gonna Be That Way.” “Poor Folks” is the most country track on the album and sounds like it could’ve been a hit for Randy Travis in his heyday. It’s about those “poor folks” who don’t get the opportunity to snuggle up close and spend time with their sweetheart. “Always Gonna Be That Way” is simply a great country song about the niceties of the simple small town life.

“Ugly Buildings, Whores, and Politicians: Greatest Hits 1998-2009” by Drive-By Truckers

photo courtesy of msn.com

If you’re a fan of the Drive-By Truckers or good Southern rock music in general, this greatest hits package is a must-have.

This album is filled with great hard-charging guitar licks and some of the best lyrics you’ll see from a rock band in this era.

The highlights of the collection are “Carl Perkins’ Cadillac,” “Zip City,” “Gravity’s Gone” and “Sink Hole.”

“Carl Perkins’ Cadillace” is the story of Sam Phillips’ Sun Records and how Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis all became stars, but Perkins pretty much got screwed.

“Zip City” is 100 percent teenage sexual angst in a beautifully written song about the thoughts that run through a 17-year old boy’s mind.

“Gravity’s Gone” is a state I think most have probably felt before, especially the lyric: “I’ll meet you at the bottom if there really is one/ They always told me when you hit it you’ll know it/ But I’ve been falling so long it’s like gravity’s gone and I’m just floating.”

“Sink Hole” is a rapid fire country-rocker about what will happen when that banker man comes to take the family farm away.

The Drive-By Truckers have that dark, Southern Gothicness down pat.

“World Wide Rebel Songs” by Tom Morello/The Nightwatchmen

Tom Morello’s The Nightwatchmen album “World Wide Rebel Songs” is fantastic to see because someone today is recording songs that matter and “World Wide Rebel Songs” is a revolution in a world that desperately needs revolution. If you’re into protest songs, this is your album.

“Union Town” kicks the door wide open with Morello’s fantastic guitar screaming, Morello is one of the few guitarists I’ve ever heard that truly makes my jaw drop. This song somewhat recalls Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” which Morello actually covered when he was with Rage Against the Machine.

“Branding Iron” is a folk song that could’ve been found on Bob Dylan’s best albums. “The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse” sounds like a tune Johnny Cash would’ve recorded for his “American Recordings” series and might be the most beautifully written song on the record. “Stray Bullets” is a nice protester about a group of Iraqi soldiers gone renegade after being caught in a pointless war and are going to kill the captain and go home.