BRAND, ADAM

Australian country-rocker Adam Brand moved to Nashville to write and record his seventh album with a crew of established Music City songwriters and producers, but Blame It on Eve, encouragingly, doesn't sound like a Big & Rich-style sell-out. Brand's rough-hewn brand of country, rooted in honky tonk and the '70s outlaws, lacks the gloss necessary to make it onto mainstream country radio (and besides, most American country fans would be confused by the pointedly Aussie geographic details in the lyrics), but those raised on Waylon Jennings may find this to their liking. Highlights include the swaggering "Get on Down the Road," powered by a vintage-sounding organ part, and the wry title track, which compares favorably to some of John Hiatt's work. Brand's agreeably rough-edged voice is instantly appealing, and there's nothing about good-timey, twangy tunes like "Nothing Like a Good Day" and the Jimmy Buffett-like near-Caribbean lilt of "Simple Man" that wouldn't potentially appeal to Montgomery Gentry or Alan Jackson fans, if they're ever likely to hear this solid, uncomplicated piece of neo-traditional country. Stewart Mason.

Estimated despatch 14-20 days after ordering.