Trucker no more

I'd tried desperately to curtail my CD buying. With a baby on the way, a man's gotta have priorities.

With that said, to those who have an interest - the best CD of the year was quietly released last month. Jason Isbell former guitarist/singer/songwriter for the brilliant Drive-by Truckers released "Sirens of the Ditch," a haunting collection of acoustic ballads and poetic storylines with the same deft characterizations of Southern life that Trucker fans have come to expect.

Dress Blues, easily the album's best song, portrays the reverberations of loss in a small town after a fallen soldier returns home.

Other great tracks ... "Down in a Hole," "Razor Town," "Try."

Good stuff with that famous Muscle Shoals sound.