Woodshedding

Most collaborations between two singer/songwriters who have their own outlets tend to be half-hearted, off-the-cuff run-throughs of tired covers and songs that neither participant liked enough to put on one of his or her real albums. However, like 1998's Little Private Angel (the first collaboration between prolific Georgia native Jack Logan and Bob Kimbell of the Illinois country-rockers Weird Summer), 2002's Woodshedding shows that Logan and Kimbell actually work better as a duo than they do on their own. Logan's solo albums, while they contain many fine songs, are erratic and often desperately in need of an editor, while Weird Summer's albums tend to lack the sort of sharp, melodic songwriting Logan provides at his best. On Woodshedding, however, the pair co-writes all the songs together, with Kimbell restraining Logan's occasional tendencies toward laxity and Logan adding melodic and lyrical heft to Kimbell's tasteful and often quite pretty country-pop songs. The best songs, like the rueful, Son Volt-like lope of "Here Comes Sisyphus" and the snarky country parody "I Still Miss Her Dog," are as good as anything either Jack Logan or Weird Summer have ever done. The untitled, bluegrass-tinged instrumental after the somber closer, "Just As You Are," is a nice touch too.