Desire Road (Imprint, 1997)

After three years, Bob Woodruff finally releases his second album, and onceagain, he writes and sings traditional country with an hard-rockingelectrified edge.

The listener can't help but wonder what's happened to himsince his last album, though, as 10 of the 12 songs here, includingrevved-up rockers like "Out of the Blue" and "I'm Losing You" and midtemponumbers like "Perfect World" and "If It's Really Got to Be This Way," arehurtin' songs. "All That Love Has Worn Away" is one of the best songs on thedisc with The Mavericks' Raul Malo on background vocals and evocative lyricslike, "Once the angry sea rushed in and washed away /Now it's very stillall across the bay."

Unfortunately, the lyrics are not always so poetic, asWoodruff, who wrote nine of the songs, sometimes slips into schlock like "IWant You." ("That boy may want you /Oh so do I / I want you.") Artistically, Woodruff has come up with another winner, but he could useanother party song likea cover of the opener, John Fogerty's "Almost Saturday Night," to make thealbum less of a lyrical downer.