RECORD REVIEWS

'WANNA BE YOUR JOE'
Billy Ray Cyrus (New Door/Universal)
Grade: C
Billy Ray Cyrus figures he might as well laugh at himself -- even if being the butt of jokes once led to his skyrocketing music career burning out so quickly.
Cyrus' new album, "Wanna Be Your Joe," includes a self-written song, "I Want My Mullet Back," that takes a comic look at an era the country singer once symbolized. The Kentucky native's 1992 hit, "Achy Breaky Heart," launched the country line-dance craze and brought greater attention to the genre. But the song's insistent chorus inspired a backlash, and Cyrus was derided as a hip-shaking lightweight with an oversized mullet. Cyrus' popularity fell nearly as fast as it had climbed.
Since then, he's enjoyed success as an actor. He appears as the father in the hit Disney Channel series "Hannah Montana," which stars the singer's real-life daughter, 13-year-old Miley Cyrus. He previously starred in the PAX cable show "Doc."
Musically, he hasn't changed. His country rock mixes down-home love songs like "I Wanna Be Your Joe" with bombastic tributes celebrating the late NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt ("The Man") and Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd ("The Freebird Fell"). He also recruits Loretta Lynn and George Jones to join him in bemoaning the direction of his favorite musical genre in "Country Music Has the Blues," a rather ironic turn for a man who pushed Nashville into a pop trend.
Maybe there are some things he still can't joke about.
--Michael McCall, Associated Press
'IN THE MAYBE WORLD'
Lisa Germano (Young God)
Grade: B
Once, Lisa Germano fiddled in John Mellencamp's band and dabbled with amusing, catchy songs such as "You Make Me Want To Wear Dresses" for her solo albums. But after flirting with the mainstream, the talented singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist turned deeply inward, writing disquieting, intimate ballads about dangerous obsessions such as drugs and alcohol (2003's "Lullaby for Liquid Pig") and love (1996's "Excerpts from a Love Circus").
"In the Maybe World" follows suit as it explores loss and death in a series of brief and often beautiful adult lullabies -- or soundtracks to nightmares -- sprinkled with allusions to fairy tales (the mirror, mirror in "Red Thread") and nursery rhymes ("Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" in "Golden Cities"). Whether accompanying herself on hesitant piano, ghostly guitar or eerie violin, Germano sings in a fragile but unflinching whisper that makes "In the Maybe World" as spellbinding as it is unsettling.
--Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer
'REPRIEVE'
Ani DiFranco (Righteous Babe)
Grade: B
Prolific and passionate folk-rocker Ani DiFranco -- who averages an album a year -- is back with another edgy (albeit often sonically soothing) disc that melds personal and political themes. This time out, DiFranco takes on New Orleans' recent devastation as a metaphor for human displacement and frustration at a seemingly indifferent government. Recorded with only one other musician, DiFranco's touring bassist Todd Sickafoose (who also handles strings, trumpet and keyboards), the album has a somewhat sparse, but hardly hollow, sound. With DiFranco's unflinching vocals front and center -- surrounded by lush piano, pump organ and her crisp acoustic guitar playing -- the record's strength lies in its sonic cohesiveness, whether it be a song about bureaucratic subterfuge (the righteous "Millennium Theatre") or the twisting complexity of a romantic relationship ("Hypnotized").
--Nicole Pensiero, Philadelphia Inquirer
'SOLDIERS OF LOVE'
The Derailers (Palo Duro)
Grade: C+
"Cold Beer, Hot Women, and Cool Country Music," a honky-tonk anthem that's as catchy as it is rowdy, gets the Derailers' sixth album off to a flying start. That kind of barroom blast, however, is not all the Austin, Texas, group is about.
The ballads "Everytime It Rains" and "Everything I Believe In" exude cool, pop-tinged atmospherics and are far superior to such derivative rockers as the Bo Diddleyesque "Donna Sue Erline" and the Jerry Lee Lewis-like "Get 'Er Done." Front man Brian Hofeldt salutes Johnny Cash with "All American Man" (going overboard in imitating Cash's music and voice), but the Derailers' main country allegiance remains to the twang-fueled Bakersfield sound, and they conclude strongly in Buck Owens mode with "You're Looking at the Man" and "It's Never Too Late for a Party."
-- Nick Christiano, Philadelphia Inquirer