There are several country artists today who often cite legends like Lefty Frizzell and Hank Williams as influences. To be influenced by those giants is one thing, but to be able to deliver songs in 2006 that have all the trademarks of classics from those eras without any over production or gloss is another. Texan James "Slim" Hand has been singing his brand of country and honky tonk for four decades now, but only recently has the national spotlight begun shining in his direction.

Now signed to Rounder Records, Hand's "The Truth Will Set You Free" has garnered critical praise. Hand, who once sat on Lefty Frizzell's knee as a six-month old, says he's happy with all the attention.

"A fellow thinks he might have something to offer, but you never know until the public decides," the modest and down-to-earth singer says in a telephone interview from Texas. "It's a lot different than sitting on your front porch swing and four or five of your friends hanging around saying, 'Well that would be pretty good you know?' Although I don't think I'm pretty good, I'm very blessed."

Hand, a native of Tokio, Texas, released a handful of albums in recent years and was often found playing gigs at places like The Broken Spoke in Austin. In 2003, he caught the eye of Rounder Records founder Ken Irwin at the annual South By Southwest festival in Austin.

"We started talking then, and just as time evolved, bless his heart, he hung in there with me, and there have been some pretty trying times for both of us. But, like I say, I appreciate it."

Hand also was able to have Asleep At The Wheel's Ray Benson as well as Lloyd Maines assist him with "The Truth Will Set You Free." But Hand had to overcome some problems with allergies before putting his timeless warble to tape.

"At the time, I had allergies so bad I couldn't talk. I mean I really couldn't. I was sounding like a dying duck in a hailstorm" he says. "I never met Mr. Maines, but when he saw that I couldn't talk he said, 'Don't worry about, we'll work around it.'"

Another setback occurred when Hand's father took ill following the singer getting down basic or "scratch" vocals to tape.

"I called the record label and said, 'I'm leaving,'" Hand says. "So I didn't leave (my father) for about 60 days. As a matter of fact, I called a policeman friend of mine to drive me down there (to an Austin recording studio) on one Sunday. They set aside four hours on a Sunday afternoon. So that's what we did.""They played what they thought was pretty finished, and I told Ray I could do better than that. So they called everybody together, and in a span of four hours, actually we nearly redid the album."

As for "The Truth Will Set You Free," diehard fans of Hand will recognize a few songs from previous albums such as "Shadows Where The Magic Was" and 2000's "Evil Things." But there is new material also that instantly brings to mind Luke The Drifter and Ernest Tubb.

"I was kind of worried that folks would think that I hadn't written any new songs," Hand says. "Mr. Maines and Mr. Benson and Mr. Irwin told me that, 'James, you're fixing to be heard in a lot more places than just Austin, Texas. We like those songs. Don't worry about it.' So we got them on there, and sure enough, they seemed to be received very well."

Perhaps the only bittersweet moment was not having his parents around to witness this new groundswell of support. His mother passed away in 2002 while his father passed away in May 2005. He says that the song "If I Live Long Enough To Heal" is perhaps the one that hits closest to home.

"It was pretty difficult," he says of creating the song. "I wrote it for mama and daddy. I'm a Christian man. You look at my track record, it may not show it, but it's a good song, and I hope mama and daddy like it."

As for personal favorites, Hand enjoys the album's coda "When You Stopped Loving Me, So Did I."

"That's about the truth of it," he says. "When a fellow goes through a hard time, you don't want necessarily everybody to see you. When you get down with a bottle in your hand, you go hide until you get over it. And I take that hiding part pretty seriously."

Hand has held many jobs over his life, from training horses to driving trucks to working with rodeos. But he has also had his low moments, something that he tends to keep close to his chest.

"I guarantee you that if anybody were to sit down and say, 'Okay, this is what I want to do to be a country singer,' I've done it," he says. "But there are facts of my life that are unforgettable to me and unremarkable to many people. I don't talk a whole lot about the stuff. I don't think it's anybody's business what a man does when the walls fall in on him, as long as he don't carry it to the street."

"I think that any degree of success that a person has, he owes it first of all to heaven above, and he owes a certain amount of gratitude, if not 90 per cent of it, to the people that are around him. I hope and I pray that I never become so different or so swallowed up by success that I change one little itty bit. The only way I change is that if I had any money, I would pay the bills on time."

Since he's been 12 or 13, Hand has always put the pen to paper or whatever other material he could find to jot ideas and lyrics down on. He says that unlike some people who set aside time to write, Hand has ideas floating around nearly all the time.

"I can't write on command," he says. "For lack of a better word it offends me when I'll ask someone if they've been writing any songs and they say, 'Well I've just been too busy to write.' Well you might be too busy to write it down but if your brain ever stops thinking for you..."

"Even as we speak right now, I hear little voices in the back of my head, and someday I'll probably write it down," he continues. "If I'm in a conversation with someone, I don't have to get a lost look in my eyes and my head rolls around and say, 'Wait a minute, I have to stop. I just had a revelation.' I can't read music. So, a lot of times, I'll write something down, and I'll forget the tune. Now I just have the van with me and a guitar and this little bitty tape record, and I'll mumble off into it."

Perhaps the biggest compliment Hand often receives is his comparisons to Lefty Frizzell and Hank Williams. Aside from the personal connection to Frizzell as a baby, Hand says he's a product of the music he heard growing up.

"There ain't nobody that learns nothing on their own," he says when asked of his influences. "It's like a mockingbird. You put a mockingbird in a cage, and he's a baby, and he doesn't know how to sing. When you're a kid, you learn from what you're around. And if you're going to be compared to anybody, I would assume that Lefty Frizzell and Hank Williams are about the best ones you could be compared to."

"As for the Hank thing, there's no contrived effort on my part to be no Hank Williams," he adds. "I've never seen video of him, I've read little bits of it because I don't want to pick up any bits so that people would say, 'He's just trying to be this or that.' As a matter of fact, Dennis Quaid asked me one time if I wanted to go to New York and be in a play about him. I told him, 'No sir.' He told me that it paid a lot of money, but I said, 'How much do you think a soul is worth?'"

The musical gap between what you hear on Hand's album and what is deemed country in today's crossover world might never be bridged. And while Hand isn't perhaps about to break any sales records by Garth Brooks, he does see what some of today's artists have to offer.

"One comes to mind, and I'm not just flipping names around here, is Ms. Wilson, I think Gretchen is her first name," he says. "She had a song about a redneck girl and I just hated it. Then I see her on TV singing that song (breaks out into song) 'When I think about leaving...' I just busted out crying, what a wonderful song."

Hand, 54 in July, says he isn't entirely sure what 2006 holds for him, but he believes it will include a lot of touring behind the record. He also seems eager to see what the response will be outside of Tokio or Austin.

"I don't think naysaying myself is doing me any good but I don't think saying I'm the next big thing is going to do me any good anyway," he says. "I just want to get out there and work and meet the folks and do the right thing and let my music speak for itself. Maybe perhaps show that there is a place for three-chord songs and that opening the door for a lady, 'Yes sir, no sir, thank you, no ma'am' and all that stuff is not out of place."