Greg Trooper
Album: Live At The Rock Room
Label: 52 Shakes
Tracks: 14
Website: http://www.gregtrooper.com

New Jersey raised and now Brooklyn-based, Trooper's been around the block a few times, his songs covered by the likes of Vince Gill, Billy Bragg, Steve Earle and Tom Russell while Emmylou Harris and Rosanne Cash are just two of the names who've provided harmonies on his own releases. His soft burred, often weary voice drawing you into his songs' emotional hearts, this is his thirteenth album and was recorded live as a single performance at the Rock Room in Austin, this January. Accompanied by just Jack Saunders on upright bass and Chip Dolan on accordion and keyboards, and featuring Trooper's spoken intros, the songs span Trooper's career, although there's nothing here from the first five albums, the earliest of the 14 numbers being Inisheer, a song about the Irish island that appeared on 2003's Floating and which reminds me slightly of Stan Rogers. The follow-up, Make It Through This World, accounts for two tracks, the Van Morrison-esque opener This I'd Do and, following on its heel, Don't Let It Go To Waste with its hints of John Prine.

Skipping The Williamsburg Affair, 2010's Upside-Down Town is represented by three numbers, the Cash-chugging Might Be A Train, plaintive love song set closer We've Still Got Time and fingerpicking regular live favourite They Call Me Hank, the bittersweet harmonica-laced tale of a river fisherman named Bill who always thought his life would turn out differently.

The bulk, however, come from his most recent studio release, Incident On Willow Street, first up being Good Luck Heart and proceeding through the organ-backed Everything's A Miracle, The Land of No Forgiveness with its lyric about extending a helping hand, One Honest Man where Springsteen and The Band share a glass of hope and the stripped to the heart self-pity of Amelia. There's also the All The Way To Amsterdam, which Tom Russell hasn't covered, but really should, and the lyrically playful Mary Of the Scots In Queens, a tale of trying to court a local beauty where Warren Zevon meets Richard Thompson. As a bonus, you also get a a brand new number, Broken Man, a heartbreaker which, with soulful keyboards from Dolan, leans heavily on the chords and melody of Merle Haggard's Sing Me Back Home.

While very much an album for the fanbase (which is pretty hefty), it underscores his reputation as one of America's finest singer-songwriters and whets the appetite for his next studio release.

Mike Davies