Album: Hayes Carll, Kmag Yoyo (Lost Highway / Humphead)

It says "Americana" up there, but this is no sepia tint of Old America. Nor is it an exercise in artily countrified nostalgia.

Hayes says it's a "snapshot of America in some small way" and he has a case. In a crowd of loudish country and R&B guitars he tells brief stories of everyday lives with a correspondingly everyday voice, but with a kind of unslung abandonment that goes rather well with the guitars. It's very good. Kmag Yoyo, incidentally, means "Kiss my ass, guys – you're on your own."