The Ghost of Jesse James

Bred on the rebel outlaw image of forefathers such as Waylon Jennings and David Allen Coe, the Oklahoma native sings with a calm and lucidity rarely found in today's country music. Whether it's the slightly pop-country of Turn of the Wheel or the strong opening title track, Jenkins performs with an authenticity that can't be formulated or processed along Nashville's Music Row. Possessing a genuine craft for the simple country song, Jenkins is at his finest on the Tex-Mex narrative of Queen of the Border Town with its traces of accordion. Backed by a well-rounded and established group of musicians, the simplicity here is the album's most favorable asset, resembling a placid rebellion attitude. Like A Drug is perhaps the heaviest sounding, bordering on rock in the vein of Steve Earle and John Hiatt. Only on Here Forever In My Life does the album slow down slightly, with Jenkins being a bit too deliberate throughout. The best song on the record has to be You're Gonna Leave Me Someday, which carries the old country rhythms with some of the newer, organ-oriented background arrangements. A very good effort from a very refined songwriter.