Country Sunshine (Boar's Nest, 2001)

Bruce Robison shows that you can indeed go home again - at least when you're not too thrilled with going the major label root (Lucky Dog/Sony) for two albums. Of course, that doesn't mean that Robison has lost any of his songwriting or singing skills.

Far from it Robison goes from a hard core country ballad ("Bed of Ashes") with lots of pedal steel to more of a softer, acoustically-based ballad ("Blame It On Me") to a "Devil May Care," which sounds like The Beatles meets country to the humorous "What Would Willie Do," an ode to Willie Nelson.

One of the highlights is a duet with wife Kelly Willis on "Friendless Marriage," a song the two co-wrote, but hopefully not about them given the depressing nature of the song which they sound so sweet together � la George and Tammy. Robison self-produced and did a fine job there as well, keeping the instrumentation spare on a slew of 11 strong songs.

The lead off "Can't Get There From Here," co-written with Allison Moorer, perhaps sums up where Robison is at career-wise, mirroring Robison's life in the majors: "I'm on a road that's going nowhere/Looking for a place where I belong/The winds pushing me in all directions/and none of them look like home."Robison is now on his home turf once again turning in another solid effort. (Bruce Robison)