One of country's most distinctive voices, John Anderson racked up an impressive list of hits in the '80s and '90s ("Swingin'," "Money in the Bank") before his career grew erratic.  Now he returns as the newest member of Big & Rich's MuzikMafia, and this solid effort (produced by Rich, who had a hand in much of the writing) appears on B&R's label, Raybaw Records. If "Funky Country" owes a little too much to the rebel stomp of "Comin' to Your City," other songs Anderson crafted with his MuzikMafia cohorts--the exquisitely sad "Bonnie Blue" and the mid-tempo ballad "I Can't Make Her Cry Anymore"--more than hold their own. Producer Rich wisely divides the program between stone-cold honky-tonk and contemporary country, balancing the George Jones-like novelty song, "Brown Liquor," with the pop-ish "You Already Know My Love," and throwing in the Dylanesque "Weeds" for good measure. Willie Nelson's nasal whine threads through a song named for him ("Willie's Guitar"), but the album's long-term resonance comes not from Rich, Nelson, or anyone else but Anderson, whose rolling, tug-and-release baritone imbues even the most mediocre lyric with chasms of pain.--Alanna Nash