Darryl Worley

Worley's self-titled effort begins optimistically enough with "Awful Beautiful Life," a microcosm of life's joys, frustrations, and sorrows that he co-wrote with Harley Allen. It and the throwaway "Was It Good for You" cover the upbeat side. Otherwise, this is a dour, dark collection fraught with shattered relationships, occasional violence, death, and alcohol-soaked pessimism. The album's war song, "If Something Should Happen," personalizes overseas troops' anxiety about family at home. Clever arrangements mesh with Worley's flawless performances, particularly the sparse New Orleans-flavored "Work and Worry," a clever cautionary about laboring oneself into the grave. "If It Hadn't Been For Love," the lament of a stalker who went too far, is both lyrically and musically foreboding. Worley clearly doesn't see patriotism merely in terms of flag-waving. He co-wrote "Wake Up America," which graphically laments small-town America's raging hard-drug epidemic. Given radio's continuing obsession with upbeat, flippant fluff, it's to his credit he eschewed rose-colored glasses to focus on what Porter Wagoner once called "The Cold Hard Facts of Life." --Rich Kienzle