Dreamland
It's Dale Watson's misfortune to flaunt a devotion to straight-no-chaser honky-tonk at a time when Nashville prefers its country with about as much kick as buttermilk. Indeed, it's tempting to imagine the response an album as solid and occasionally inspired asDreamlandwould have received in the heyday ofMerle HaggardandGeorge Jones. WithAsleep at the Wheel's Ray Benson at the production helm, Watson's hard edges are softened a bit on this 12-song collection, but he's still got the perspective and pipes for putting across barroom laments that may be unsurpassed among his contemporaries. The conservational delivery of "I Wish You'd Come Around" and the masculine wistfulness of the title track are as stirring as they are effortless. Watson seems destined to haunt the fringes of country music, where connoisseurs of hardcore honky-tonk gather to toast a master who's had the hard luck to come along a couple of decades too late to get his just rewards.--Steven Stolder