Onward Through It All, I Feel Like Singing Today

The second volume of the groundbreaking A Town South Of Bakerfield compilation opened with the Jim Lauderdale song 'What Am I Waiting For'. It was enough to make me a fan.

After a full album recorded with the pioneering Pete Anderson was binned, Lauderdale's debut finally came on Reprise with Planet Of Love. In retrospect, it wasn't quite the album it could have been, but with songs like 'The King Of Broken Hearts', 'Maybe', 'Bless Her Heart' and 'Where The Sidewalk Ends', it both confirmed his status as a writing force and showed a captivating voice that was as much southern soul and r'n'b as country.

Perhaps it was this mercurial blend which confused radio programmers, but this is one listener who has lost interest in classifying the influences: rest assured, there's country in there alright but, mainly, what I hear now is Jim Lauderdale. The component parts don't really matter anymore.

His last album, Whisper, was his most traditional to date and Onward Through It All follows similar lines. A generous 16 tracks make up the record and there's not a bad song among them. A mix of co-writes and solo cuts finds him in collaboration with Kim Richey, Dixie Chick Emily Erwin, Jamie Hartford, Gary Nicholson, Aimée Mayo, longtime co-writer Frank Dycus and most intriguingly, Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. This makes for a varied viewpoint that only adds to Lauderdale's eminently rich brew.

The second new release featuring Mr Lauderdale is a joint album with Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys. When Steve Earle said of The Mountain that his primary motive was to write just one song that would be performed by at least one band at every Bluegrass Festival, he had high hopes. The songs on I Feel Like Singing Today stand a far better chance of achieving that aim.

This is no crossover collection; it is old time/mountain-folk music, played with a simplicity and purity that demands attention. The blend of Ralph Stanley's high lonesome voice with Jim Lauderdale's strong, fine timbre is but one compelling highlight of a record that honours the bluegrass tradition even as it enhances Lauderdale's own reputation.

These two albums represent some kind of high point for one of the best writers to work on Music Row in years. They prove his entitlement to a place in the pages of country music history - and if the radio DJs are too dumb to see that, they really have got their dials twisted.