Put The O Back In Country (Universal South, 2005)

Shooter Jennings is all riled up and ready - like so many others before him - to restore some rawk and raunch to country music, which many would say sounds an awful lot like adult contemporary these days. So he blasts off this record with two tracks - the title track and �4th of July� that name check Neil Young and let George Jones sing a bit of �He Stopped Loving Her Today.� Shooter isn�t looking to bring back country�s roots, however.

In fact, it sounds like the country Shooter is referencing belongs to the era of Hank Williams Jr., Billy Joe Shaver and David Allan Coe. Muscular selections such as the galloping �Busted In Baylor Country� and fish-out-of-water story �Solid Country Gold� roar and rock, but they don�t necessarily have the tart n� twang of your more traditional country song. Of course, sometimes he turns the volume down, such as on the down-and-out �Sweet Savannah,� that let you know where he�s coming from.

Fans of Jason and the Scorchers and Robert Earl Keen will likely thrill to Jennings� antics, but traditionalists may wonder if they haven�t wandered into a sure-fire rock and roll show.