The latest CD releases reviewed

JIM LAUDERDALE
The Bluegrass Diaries Yep Roc Records **** 

Here's a man on fire. After years of knocking on doors, Lauderdale has spent the past five walking through them to the sound of praise as one of the oustanding Nashville talents extant. Country music may be going through a lean time, with little new of substance, but Lauderdale has bucked the trend with a rake of exceptional albums that broadly cover the Americana base. This prodigious output is set to continue - Bluegrass Diaries is the first of three albums Lauderdale will release in the coming nine months. Productivity doesn't came at the expense of quality. There are 10 tracks that ring true of loving, losing and regret, many co-written with country giants such as Melba Montgomery and Shaun Camp. The playing and singing are top drawer, with picking to marvel at and harmonies to admire. Quality country, if that's not an oxymoron. www.jimlauderdale.com

Download tracks: I Wanted to Believe, Are You having Second Thoughts?, My Somewhere Just Got Here

MARY GAUTHIER
Between Daylight and Dark Lost Highway ****

"When you flirt with shadows/ darkness snakes under your skin/ the only way back home/ is to let the light of truth back in." Mary Gauthier carries the scars of a grim childhood, a rollercoaster young adulthood and a guilt-riven reflective middle age. That's the downside. The upside is that Gauthier has no shortage of raw material. While the manner in which she sings the soundtrack of her life may be stark and bleak, her songs reveal a deep, painful honesty and

a constant belief that, as Lou Reed once wrote, the power of love will see her through. These 10 songs of folk blues and maverick country, evocatively set by producer Joe Henry, are bookended by two remarkable family tales. Snakebit

is about Gauthier's childhood and Thanksgiving describes a visit to her brother in prison. In between, the title track and Same Road see her deep in intense self-examination. www.marygauthier.com

Download tracks: Snakebit, Same Road, Thanksgiving