Spend My Time (Equity, 2004)

Clint Black's first album in four years finds his artistic reach expanding. In addition to penning the dozen tracks, Black served as producer for his hand-picked band and recorded for his own new label. With aesthetic and commercial controls both in hand, Black has turned out a surprisingly sophisticated collection of ballads and funk-inflected mid-tempo numbers.

Entering his forties with a wife and child, Black contemplates the changing priorities of middle-age ("Spend My Time") as well as his own human frailties ("We All Fall Down"). The latter sports a soulful mix of organ, piano harmonica, banjo and John Robinson's terrific staccato second-line drumming; the extended instrumental coda is especially fine. Robinson's drumming returns to drive the paranoid dot-com futurism of "Haywire," and Black maintains a bluesy mid-tempo punch with "Everything I Need" and "The Boogie Man."

The ballads are a more mixed lot. A few make original, personal turns, like the introspective title track and the theatrical "A Lover's Clown." Others slip into Nashville-bland melodies and lyrics.

It's a treat to hear Black integrating jazz, blues and funk flavors so effortlessly into his mid-tempo songs and to discover how richly his voice fits a variety of moods and tones. His criticism of major label conventions and his cash on the barrelhead are brave, confident moves; whether or not he finds his way back to the charts, there's clearly a rich artistic future ahead.