*** John Dee Graham

SUMMERLAND

(New West)

"I'm not in charge, and that's okay/And I'm not at large, at least not today." That phrase from "God's Perfect Love" is nearly as upbeat as it gets for John Dee Graham, a former member of legendary Austin punk band the Skunks and later the country-punk True Believers (with Alejandro Escovedo). On Summerland, his second solo outing, his unadorned garage-band sound shifts from high-voltage grinds to soft songs characterized by a melancholy acoustic guitar spiked with a mewing slide guitar. Graham's yearning, pack-a-day vocals heave out stark images of the plains heat, a plane crash, or a gal on a dance floor, evocative details punctuating stories that have hazy, ambivalent higher meanings. Past Graham tunes have been recorded by Patty Smyth and others, and he worked with X's John Doe for a couple of years before Texas called him home. Like Doe's music, Graham's is a little dark, or at least it comes off that way because of his raspy voice and the spare approach of his line-up, which includes musicians associated with Joe Ely and John Mellencamp.

-- Bill Kisliuk