Drive-In Movie (Vertical, 1996)

Fred Eaglesmith graduated from Singer-Songwriter University with a major in Guy Clark and a minor in Terry Allen. He's been honing his craft for quite some time. Although "Drive-in Movie" represents Eaglesmith's U.S. debut, this Ontario native has six previous albums in Canada going way back to 1980. Eaglesmith writes a lot about cars. He also writes about trains, soda machines and hurricanes. The last two topics are covered in two of the best songs, "Soda Machine" and "Wilder Than Her." Apparently, he used to write a lot about farms, but has given up that topic, at least for now, However, his songs remain almost exclusively about small-town characters. His singing? Well, he's better than Guy Clark, and let's leave it at that. For that matter, the whole album is better than anything Guy Clark has put out in a long, long time.