Travis TrittThe Storm | Category 5  September 5,
 2007 1:35:13 PM 
 
 | 
 
 
Georgia-born Tritt has always been a country musician with a rock-and-roll soul, but this time he’s put the accent on “soul” as a genre. Those who heard his 2006 cameo on Sam Moore’s comeback album — and that ain’t many — got a preview of the blue-eyed wailing that’s all over these 12 Randy Jackson produced songs. (Jackson also produced the Moore disc, Overnight Sensational.) The disc starts with the cry of a lonesome dobro before kicking into the tongue-in-cheek first single, “You Never Take Me Dancing,” a funky red-clay workout. Even when Tritt visits a ballad here, he keeps his voice full of melismas and flattened notes that signify roots in the blues. The only outright miscall is “Something Stronger Than Me,” a shot of saccharine clichés. Jackson’s taste for keys and strings — especially outdated keyboard beds — sometimes impinges on Tritt’s potential for grit, but not enough to kill the vibe. It’s also a pleasure when Tritt opens up on guitar, copping a little Stevie Ray Vaughan on the title track and on “Somehow, Somewhere, Someway,” which has the guts of a live showstopper. This disc is proof that even today the difference between rural blues and rural country is just a matter of pigmentation.
  
	
 | 
  | 
	
	
	
		  
			
		 | 
	 
	
		
			
				
					
					
							-  More than a decade into their career, Dropkick Murphys accept success — and pay tribute to the people and the city who helped them earn it
 
						
							-  Will Brattle Street torpedo him again?
 
						
							-  Paparazzi were the first to be blamed for the death of the Princess of Wales. My (brief) life as a snapper.
 
						
							-  Never mind its tough-girl alt-porn feminism: SuicideGirls has already moved on to a new generation
 
						
							-  The networks put some English on the fall TV season
 
						
							-  Building the new Disney empire, one tween at a time
 
						
					       
				 
			 
			
				
					
					
							-  More than a decade into their career, Dropkick Murphys accept success — and pay tribute to the people and the city who helped them earn it
 
						
							-  Who is that stashed man?
 
						
							-  A message for Facebook users: you’re being watched
 
						
							-  On the road with Mozart and Molière in Don Juan Giovanni
 
						
							-  Rhode Island is poised for a wireless leap forward with the first-in-the-nation statewide network
 
						
							-  Or why the FCC should go fuck itself
 
						
					       
				 
			 
			
		 | 
	 
 
 
 
	
	
	 
	-  
												Civilians | Anti-
 -  
												The best of the season’s roots, world, folk, and blues
 -  
												Grace Potter makes a major-label smash
 -  
												Juke Joint Duo | Soul Is Cheap
 -  
												Drums along the Hudson | Cooking Vinyl
 -  
												Big Science | Nonesuch
 -  
												Suzanne Vega gets into the sounds of the city
 -  
												Bobby Rush digs his roots
 -  
												Going Way Out with Heavy Trash | Yep Roc
 
  |   
	  
	- Fabrications | Die Stadt
 - Attack Decay Sustain Release | Interscope
 - Shout Factory!
 - Street Symphony | High Street
 - Civilians | Anti-
 - Signature Sounds
 - Marissa Nadler’s icy, transporting gothic folk
 - Recycled Recipes | Lost Highway
 - Our Love to Admire | Capitol
 
  |   
	
 
	
 |   
 |   
				 |