Dusty Drake (Warner, 2003)

Dusty Drake has an absolutely killer voice. His contribution to the Hank Williams, Jr. tribute earlier this year (a cover of �Heaven Can�t Be Found�) might be the best thing on that record and made you sit up and take notice. And if his first single, �One Last Time,� is a bit overblown, it�s redeemed by Drake�s emotive singing and by the genuinely moving twist the lyrics deliver at song�s end.

Those indicators made one look forward to an album-length effort from Drake, but the results on his self-titled debut are mixed. The songwriting is somewhat uneven; Drake had a hand in writing 6 of the album�s 11 songs, and they range from the distinctive deep country of �Smaller Pieces� and the fine storyline song �The Wish� to the formulaic sentiments of songs such as �Ain�t Nobody�s Business� and �Too Wet to Plow.� More troubling, the production just doesn�t do Drake any favors; too often it opts for a bombastic southern rock or arena country sound that leaves the record sounding like a thousand other generic mainstream Nashville releases. And Drake seems prone to mistake passion for singing at full throttle, which too often overwhelms the effect of the song he�s singing. All that said, there�s enough of the good stuff here to raise hopes for more consistent results from Drake the next time out.