MUSIC \ Ratings for selected releases

'GETTING SOMEWHERE'
Allison Moorer
(Sugar Hill)
Grade C+
After five uncompromising country torch-song albums failed to make her a star, Allison Moorer moves in a gritty pop direction with "Getting Somewhere." With her husband producing, the soulful-voiced seventh Mrs. Steve Earle (and sister of singer Shelby Lynne) shows a flair for hummable melodies set to garage-rock grunge. And while "Getting Somewhere" is essentially an upbeat, optimistic album in which hooky songwriting carries the day, Moorer's not afraid to dig deep: Both "New Years Day" and "How She Does It" find her, for the first time, confronting her tragic childhood, in which both her parents died in a murder-suicide.
-- Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer
'THE BIG BANG'
Busta Rhymes
(Aftermath/Interscope)
Grade C
You know Busta? The big mouth that roared? The rapid rapper on the apocalyptic trip with the hair as dreaded as his lyrics? Of course you do. Busta's had that schtick for 10 years; the ragga, the woo-hah.
Busta's still loud, and still loves the toasting of his Jamaican upbringing. But Rhymes has shorn his locks, his old, lame label ("This ain't J Records" he coughs on the G-Funky "Get You Some") and joined forces with Dr. Dre for a lean, dirty vibe (lots of Dre's signature piano) and a cheerier outlook.
This doesn't mean Busta's turned pop-hop, a la Chris Brown, even if "I Love My B-" is pretty chipper. It's just that a ruminative Busta sees both sides of the barbed-wire fence ("In the Ghetto") while utilizing the rawest noise ("New York S-") and the subtlest shadings (the insistently pulsating "Touch It").
-- A.D. Amorosi, Knight Ridder Newspapers
'ROCKIN' YOU TONIGHT'
Blaine Larsen
(BNA)
Grade B
Just 20 years old, Blaine Larsen sounds like a stylish old pro on his second album, beginning with the lead-off song and first single -- the Spanish-flavored, George Strait-like "I Don't Know What She Said."
Of course, this young neotraditionalist already sounded mature beyond his years on his impressive 2005 debut, "Off to Join the World." This time, though, there are no teen-perspective songs to hint at his age. With his smooth baritone, he once again excels as a balladeer, pairing with Gretchen Wilson on "Lips of a Bottle" and countrifying the Mac Davis oldie "Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me." Like Strait, he also has a deft touch with lighthearted honky-tonkers such as "No Woman."
-- Nick Cristiano, Knight Ridder
'CATCH THAT TRAIN'
Dan Zanes and Friends
(Festival Five/Hear)
Graade B+
With "Catch That Train!," Dan Zanes' career as an all-ages troubadour keeps chugging along nicely. That the former rocker follows the formula of his earlier family-oriented releases doesn't make this album any less enjoyable; it just shows how much mileage there is in this approach.
Folk and pop tunes familiar and obscure -- some radically recontextualized a la Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band -- are again mixed with Zanes originals (the slithery "Let's Shake" wouldn't have sounded out of place with his old band, the Del Fuegos). It's a determinedly multiethnic stew, with Caribbean, South African, Anglo-Celtic and Spanish strains, but all of it has a funky, homespun charm that's all rather cool.
-- Knight Ridder Newspapers
'STINGY BRIM'
Johnnie Valentino
(OmniTone)
Grade B
Guitarist Johnny Valentino re-establishes his Philly credentials by identifying with a loser: the tuba.
The South Philly-raised Valentino, who emigrated to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s to write music for television and the movies, here commemorates the 100th anniversary of the tuba's toppling by the string bass as the main pulse keeper in jazz. But while Valentino looks back to an earlier time, his quintet moves forward by imagining what modern jazz would sound like with a tuba, a clarinet and a harmonium as stand-in for the accordion.
The result on "Return" with organist Mick Rossi is an unusual and often meditative affair. The session borrows some solidity from classical music and exudes a cerebral vibe at times.
-- Karl Stark, Philadelphia Inquirer