Jesse Winchester

Love Filling Station, Winchester's Appleseed debut and his first studio CD since 1999's Gentleman of Leisure, offers nine characteristically top-flight originals among its dozen songs. It also highlights Jesse as a graceful, soulful vocalist, as memorable a singer as a songwriter. His light southern tenor drawl, warmly wrapped in country/bluegrass/folk arrangements, can gently ascend to the heavens a la Roy Orbison, as in the lovestruck wonderment of "O What a Thrill" (already covered by The Mavericks), dish some sly, wry dirt ("It's a Shame About Him") and even capture the sublime hush of Ben E. King's classic "Stand By Me," one of the CD's three covers. The lightly rocking "Wear Me Out," another original, mixes a mock-plaintive vocal of sexual exhaustion with a funky, gospel-tinged call-and-response as the great bluegrass solo artist and sideman Jerry Douglas threads carnal lap steel guitar licks throughout the song.

Aside from Douglas's guest shot, some of the core musicians on Love Filling Station are the equally estimable Russ Barenberg (guitar, mandolin); Mark Fain (bass) and Andy Leftwich (fiddle) from Ricky Scaggs' band; Jesse himself (guitar, keyboards, lead and backing vocals); and solo artist Claire Lynch, who summons her inner Dolly Parton on one of the album's other cover songs, "Loose Talk," an uptempo country lament about wagging tongues and provincial minds.