Alvin Youngblood Hart

An audacious turf grab in a year when Lucinda Williams is doing for the blues she loves what Billy Bragg and Wilco are doing for the Woody Guthrie they love--reconstituting them for a greater good that may also be self-discovery or self-aggrandizement only who cares? After asserting its intentions with a Western swing original perfectly suited to Hart's keen blues tenor, it mixes landmarks like "John Hardy" and "Mama Don't Allow" with a ska original, a Beefheart instrumental, Ruth Etting's (and also X's) "Dancing With Tears in My Eyes," and the harrowing tale of "two mixed-blood brothers" who got lynched in 1886 pursuing an assault case they were right about--its guitar accompaniment blues-based, all right, but only because the Grateful Dead are too. If it doesn't flow like Williams or Bragg & Wilco, well, there's nothing gracious or integrated about Hart's claim, which is that when you start with country blues all of American pop is your territory. Conceptually, it's uncompromising; musically, it can only hit home piece by piece. (Grade: A-)