Blitzen Trapper: American Goldwing

Label: Sub Pop

On their third album for Sub Pop, Portland, Oregon's Blitzen Trapper both loosen up and toughen up their '70s country-rock sound. What this veteran band does wisely is mix and match aspects of that retro sound over the course of American Goldwing -- a somewhat lost art known as "album sequencing" -- while keeping the majority of the songs around three minutes long, making the whole of the album a rollicking breeze to listen to. "Your Crying Eyes" is raucous but fun, a set of tough-as-Wranglers riffs backing frontman Eric Earley's grinning kiss-offs. That leads right into the harmonica-groovy "My Home Town," the sort of easy jam we'd all like to write about our own stomping grounds. Earley goes from witsful to outright romantic on the next tune, "Girl in a Coat," a showcase for his lived-in, softly raspy voice. A winner for the jeans-and-boots crowd!