Red Dirt

"Red Dirt", a collaboration of Andre Williams and the Sadies, takes many turns through its 12-song repertoire. Starting out with the purely American "Hey Truckers", Williams's voice goes growl-in-paw with the Sadies' Midwestern drums and guitar. "Busted" slows down the pace a notch with its lurching, often-covered imagery of poverty's struggles. "She's All That" kicks it back up, making use of Williams's penchant for rollicking, wolf-whistle lyrics.

The album veers into dead seriousness and despondency in the next two songs, "I Can Tell" and "Pardon Me (I've Got Someone To Kill)". "I Can Tell" is a grief-overwhelmed, staggering tale of betrayal; "Pardon Me" could well be what takes place in the writer's mind given a few more days to turn deadly and rancid.

"Weapon of Mass Destruction" compares a woman's wiles to the fatal machinery of a military-industrial complex. "Only you can stop production", implores Williams, in this one song in which he uses a high-pitched, singsong voice.

"Easy on the Eyes" sweeps away the skeletons and spectres, returning to a whimsical, easygoing pace and guitar style. Williams foregoes his earthiness to belt out a warm, friendly tribute to the beauty and charm of women. "I'm an Old Man" keeps Williams's eye on the ladies with the refrain, "… doin' what I can".

"Tramp Trail" is a song that plods with the burden of its lyrics about the end of the trail for many: homelessness and despair.

From here the album's tone becomes cold and chilling with a remake of Eddie Noack's "Psycho", beginning with steel guitar and never letting up as Williams relates the story-within-a-story of a psychopath confessing to his woman. From there, "I Understand (DO YOU) becomes more normally confrontational, in much the same jangling style as "She's All That". "Old John", with backing vocals by the Sadies, recounts Andre's favorite work partner, a mule who worked with him in the fields before he became a famous singer. Winding up, "Queen of the World" brays much like a mule in its halting, bittersweet tribute to a lost relationship, and "My Sister Stole My Woman Out From Under Me" is told in a vocal style reminiscent of, of all people, Bill Cosby.