Delivered

Mark Erelli has never been a groundbreaking or terribly original artist, but when it comes to providing thoughtful, compelling folk-rock and Americana, he is a masterful expert — and those who have admired the East Coast singer/songwriter's previous work will find that his excellence continues to hold up on Delivered. This 2008 release contains a few amplified rockers, including "Shadowland" and the somewhat Bruce Springsteen-ish "Baltimore." But much of the time, Erelli favors an unplugged and decidedly minimalist approach — which works well for him because using fewer instruments makes his lyrics stand out more. Delivered is highly contemplative, and one of the things Erelli contemplates is politics. He gets very political on songs like "Volunteers," "Shadowland," and "Hope Dies Last," all of which are on the melancholy side. Erelli takes a look at political topics — the Iraq War, George W. Bush's disastrous presidency, turmoil in the Middle East — and he doesn't give the listener a lot of reason to feel optimistic about the state of the world. Not that Delivered is an exclusively political album; actually, only about one-third of the songs are political in nature. And whether Erelli is being political or not, the influences that have worked well for him in the past — influences that include Bob Dylan (a major influence), Springsteen, John Hiatt, and Neil Young — still serve him well on Delivered. Released about ten years after Erelli recorded his self-titled debut album, Delivered is his seventh release on Signature Sounds and isn't the least bit disappointing.