Darryl Worley

Kicking off his fourth long player with the hayseed hit "Awful Beautiful Life," Darryl Worley's self-titled album both celebrates and pokes fun at the everyday lifestyles of the American country music fan -- not in an over-romanticized way, but in all the unglamorous realities that go with being a heartland homebody.

Last year, Worley broke free from the country pack with "Have You Forgotten?," one of
the key statements of post-9/11 country patriotism. He's left most of the jingoism by the
side of the road on his fourth album, and his music is all the better for it. On the lovely,
plaintive "Find Me," he's sensitive; on "What Makes a Man Do That," Worley is both indignant
and weak; and on "If I Could Tell the Truth," he's humble, even. Imagine that.