You Won't Ever Be Lonely (RCA, 1999)

In an attempt to appeal to the last untapped demographic group, Andy Griggs is being marketed as the Nashville Kurt Cobain. (Just what we need, right? Grunge country.) And he's certainly got the look - hair in his eyes, stubble on his chin. But Kurt Cobain did things in a big way. (Else why use a shotgun when a pistol would have done the job just as well?) Nobody ever accused Cobain of being bland.

But there's no other word to describe Griggs. The first single "You Won't Ever be Lonely" is semi-catchy in an eminently forgettable way. The other songs are either dumb - in "I Don't Know a Thing" a guy actually goes to see a mechanic about his broken heart - or dull; "I'll Go Crazy" and "Waitin' on Sundown" sound like recycled Travis Tritt.

(Although the latter does contain the great bad lyric: "He knows she's gonna be there soon/Then they'll blow this town like a cheap balloon.") The duet with Waylon Jennings, "Shine on Me" was a mistake as well. Reminding us of what a real country singer sounds like just brings Grigg's inadequacies even more to the forefront. Don't believe the hype. This album doesn't "smell like Teen Spirit"; it smells half-baked.