You Won't Ever Be Lonely
A quick glance at the cover and inner-sleeve photos of Andy Griggs's debut album reveals this kid's most obvious selling point, aside from his light, twangily expressive baritone: an alluring Leonardo DiCaprio-Brad Pitt "look"--the stringy blonde hair, the fashionably stubbly beard. No doubt he'll make hearts throb in the teenage-female target group that the Nashville record hucksters seem to be lusting after these days. Griggs has a serious weakness for generic-sounding country-pop ballads. Yet the 26-year-old Louisiana-born singer delivers some impressive country grit and soul on gutsier songs like "Waitin' On Sundown," "A Side of Me," and the anguished "Ain't Done Nothin' Wrong"--one of four songs that Griggs cowrote. And he really rips things up on his spirited, worthy reprise of the Rodney Crowell classic "Ain't Livin' Long Like This." It just goes to show that you can't always judge a book (or a country CD) by its pretty-boy cover.--Bob Allen