New Recordings

For the most part Lines, Vines and Trying Times is an amorphous mess. Kind of like the CD's pretentious title.

- David Hiltbrand

Country/Roots

Brad Paisley
American Saturday Night
(Arista Nashville ***)

Brad Paisley's new album seems perfectly timed for summer. With 15 songs cowritten by the country superstar himself, American Saturday Night is a sunny showcase for his clean-cut charm and crowd-pleasing songcraft, while the many twang-fired instrumental passages that pepper the songs allow the West Virginia native to display his considerable guitar prowess without seeming self-indulgent.

If Paisley relies a little too heavily on the clever and the cute, he shows again that he's capable of more, although you'd still like to see someone of his talents used to dig a little deeper. The first single, "Then," is a run-of-the-mill love ballad, but "Everybody's Here" and "Oh Yeah, She's Gone" effectively let some darkness in, and "No" offers a blunt life lesson. Then there's "Welcome to the Future." It's a series of observations about how times change that seems to be Paisley at his most trite and innocuous - until he gets to the last verse and starts singing about a burning cross on a lawn and Martin Luther King. Even with a black president in the White House, that's pretty gutsy for a country boy.

- Nick Cristiano

Daryle Singletary
Rockin' in the Country
(E1 Music ***)

The title of Daryle Singletary's new album is a bit misleading. The title song, which leads off the album, and the finale (before the bonus cut) do, indeed, rock the country. The tracks in between do not.

That's perfectly fine. Singletary is a steadfast neotraditionalist with a classic country baritone, and he excels as a balladeer. Here he's got the right accompaniment and a lot of solid material to work with - "Going Through Hell (With You Again)," "If I Ever Get Her Back," "She's a Woman." And when he gets hold of a real killer - "How Can I Believe You (When You'll Be Leaving Me"), the dead-man-talking "She Sure Looks Good in Black" - well, country doesn't get much better.

- N.C.

Jazz

Randy Crawford
and Joe Sample
No Regrets
(PRA Records ***)

It was the 1979 hit "Street Life" that brought singer Randy Crawford together with the Crusaders and their pianist, Joe Sample.

Crawford and Sample reunited first in 2006 with the jazz crossover CD Feeling Good. On this CD, she sounds more like a jazz singer, though there's still a healthy bit of crossover - from blues to gospel to pop - as one might expect from Sample and producer Tommy LiPuma.

Crawford is a bit of a mystery. She's got solid chops and the ability to convey emotion, but hasn't broken through.

This set doesn't solve that problem, but it shows Crawford and Sample in accessible form.

Working here with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Steve Gadd - as on the 2006 set - she maneuvers through "Every Day I Have the Blues" like a jazz chanteuse. She shows some gospel earnestness on "Respect Yourself," which gets maddeningly repetitive by the end, and squeezes some folky soul from Sarah McLachlan's "Angel."

Sample is, as always, a versatile collaborator. The title track, a soulful remake of an Edith Piaf-associated tune, makes for a gentle encounter.

- Karl Stark

Phil Woods
The Children's Suite
(Jazz Media ***)

Saxophonist and composer Phil Woods has tried since the early 1960s to get the rights to put A.A. Milne's verses in a jazz setting. He finally succeeds here, and the results, with a narrator, two singers, and an 18-piece orchestra, are fun and even uplifting.

Woods, who cofounded the Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts in northeastern Pennsylvania, taps players who have played there over the years or gone to one of his camps. Singer Bob Dorough delivers some slinkiness on "Pinkle Purr," while Vickie Doney sings Christopher Robin's words in a fresh fashion.

The charts are done in a boppish way, and Woods' alto still sears after all these years. The cutesy singing gets overdone, but Milne fans ought to appreciate this unusual tribute.

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