The Resentments

On their second outing and first studio effort (their 2002 debut, Sunday Night Line Up was a live album), the Resentments take the leap from occasional jamming collective to full-fledged band. Comprised of guitarist/singers Stephen Bruton, Jon Dee Graham, and Bruce Hughes, as well as bassist Bruce Hughes and drummer John Chipman, each member save Chipman wrote at least one of the 14 tracks on The Resentments, filling out the album with well-chosen covers that highlight the band's mix of personalities. The high point is the album's opener, "Rich Man's War," one of the most pointed commentaries yet on the war in Iraq. "It takes a bucket of blood to buy a barrel of oil," Bruton sings over a raucous bar band stomp; not an original sentiment, but a fine counterpoint to Toby Keith and Darryl Worley. Bruton's honky-tonkin' "Never Slowin' Down" and Hughes' poppy "People Ask Me" provide the disc's other upbeat moments, but the album's real strength comes primarily in its quieter songs, notably Leadbelly's "You Don't Know My Mind" and Big Star's "Thirteen," both sung by Graham, and the Jud Newcomb-sung version of Ronnie Lane's "Annie," all of which gain resonance from the world-weariness of these veterans' voices.