Welding Burns Welding Rod Music****

In a local context the themes of this album resonate all too easily with the devastation visited upon this country. "No one remembers your name just for working hard . . . " goes the refrain on the opening Rust Belt Field, a hoary whisper of an alt.country lament for lost jobs and lost hope. Seasoned US singer-songwriter Rod Picott carries the weight of blue collar disillusion in acutely observed story-songs. There's no sense of self-pity, just some what-ifs, WTF shrugs, petty crime and desperate stabs at romance such as the wonderfully vulnerable Still I Want You Bad. Picott hails from this world. The people who inhabit his songs might be fictitious or not, but he knows and understands them. Picott and co-producer David Henry set these songs to understated arrangements with Alex McCollough's steel guitar and Will Kimbrough's guitar evoking signature moods. An album for our times. See rodpicott.com.

Download tracks: Rust Belt Field, Still I Want You Bad, 410