record reviews

April 4, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

‘Out Front’

Rufus Reid (Motema Records)

Grade: B

Somewhere around the third tune, this CD overwhelms objections. Elite bassist Rufus Reid specializes in making people around him sound better, and his trio creates that top-shelf feel, full of style and grace. Reid will perform at 8 p.m. Monday at Kilcawley Center at Youngstown State University.

Drummer Duduka Da Fonseca is known for his native Brazilian rhythms, but here he’s deep in a mainstream jazz pocket, even on the driving “Dry Land,” written by the Berkeley, Calif.-based Brazilian composer Marcos Silva.

Jazz pianist and composer Steve Allee, who has written for television shows from “Friends” to “NYPD Blue,” plays lots of velvet with some stentorian McCoy Tyner-esque chords thrown in.

The set is more than a drive through the songbook. Reid’s “Caress the Thought” projects orchestral ambitions. And generally these guys play bigger than a trio.

— Karl Stark, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘I Got Your Country Right Here’

Gretchen Wilson

(Redneck Records)

Grade: B

The title of Gretchen Wilson’s new album, “I Got Your Country Right Here,” issues an angry, defiant taunt and a personal manifesto. Facing a turning point in her career, the self-described “Redneck Woman” makes it clear she’s ready to fight in order to make music her way.

Wilson exploded onto the country scene in 2004 with the self-defining No. 1 hit “Redneck Woman.” Her instant success earned her not only the Country Music Association’s Best New Artist award, but also the CMA’s Female Vocalist of the Year — a first for a newcomer.

But her fortunes slipped from there. Record company changes and country radio’s lack of support led to Wilson leaving Columbia Records to start an independent label, Redneck Records. Her first album for her own company ratchets up everything she’s accentuated from the start: blustery southern rock touting a hard-partying, one-of-the-boys attitude and an in-your-face allegiance to blue-collar ideals.

There’s nothing subtle, but plenty colorful, about Wilson’s stomping tunes, from “Work Hard, Play Harder” and the ready-to-rumble “Earrings Song,” both recorded at Columbia, to “Outlaws and Renegades” and the title song, which pay homage to the rebellious elements of country music’s past.

Wilson makes it clear she doesn’t relate with much of country music’s present, but she’s ready to bulldoze a new path for its future.

— Michael McCall, Associated Press ‘Raymond v. Raymond’

Usher (Jive Records)

Grade: C-

Usher’s latest disc, “Raymond v. Raymond,” is a bit like deja vu.

It has all the elements of his earlier albums. There’s the less-than-subtle autobiographical relationship track — in this case, it’s a song about divorce (“Papers”). And in the vein of 2004’s “Confessions,” a woefully apologetic Usher spills the beans about cheating on “Foolin’ Around.” It opens with him saying: “I know I vowed to never do this again, but it seems to be the only thing I’m good at.”

While it’s clear he underestimates his ability to do better in the fidelity department, it seems the singer has limited himself musically as well.

The Jim Jonsin-produced “There Goes My Baby” is instantly appealing, but upbeat club tracks including “Lil Freak,” featuring rap “it” girl Nicki Minaj, and “She Don’t Know,” with Ludacris, are catchy but disappointingly safe choices for 31-year-old Usher.

“So Many Girls” and the will.i.am-produced “OMG” border on disastrous as far as sound and lyrics go. But the real letdown of “Raymond v. Raymond” is that those who listen to it won’t know any more about Usher Raymond, as an artist or a man, than they previously did.

— Melanie Sims, Associated Press

‘Freight Train’

Alan Jackson (Arista Nashville)

Grade: B

On the twentieth anniversary of his debut album, Alan Jackson continues to prove consistency need not equal complacency. After a few years of challenging himself with side roads that explored traditional gospel, adult-contemporary love songs and a wide-ranging collection of songs he wrote by himself, Jackson settles back into his comfort zone on “Freight Train.”

The 12 songs mostly find him in a laid-back groove befitting the 51-year-old’s laconic style. “Freight Train” delivers wise lyrics about love, family, loss and familiar comforts set to down-home melodies that lope along with natural ease. Everything seems so casually offhand that it’s almost easy to miss the wisdom of the lyrics and the catchiness of the melodies.

Like influences Merle Haggard or Don Williams, Jackson so wholly embodies his musical persona that, when he’s in the zone like this, there’s no strain or filter between who he is and what he sings.

As universal as the songs “After 17” and “The Best Keeps Getting Better” may be, it’s also clear he’s drawing on real-life observations about his daughters and his wife.

— Michael McCall, Associated Press