The compelling and compulsively listenable Darrell Scott is that most unusual of Nashville creators--a songwriter who crafts commercial tunes for such mainstream acts as the Dixie Chicks ("Long Time Gone"), Patty Loveless ("You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive"), and Travis Tritt ("It's a Great Day to Be Alive") and a highly respected Americana recording artist on his own. Equal parts poet, philosopher, and confessor of dark truths, Scott blends wisdom, humor, and social satire, and marries them to jaunty or jaundiced melodies dressed with augmented acoustic instrumentation (mandolin, fiddle, guitar, electric guitar, upright bass) that often evokes an earlier age. The Invisible Man, his sixth record, is perhaps his most intense, emotional, and spiritually searching, but also his most satisfying. His one cover, Stuart Adamson's "Shattered Cross," proves unforgettable in its edgy warnings against a woman who will "empty your pockets and rip out your heart / and leave you the ruins of a life torn apart." But Scott's own restless soul-searching, particularly on "And the River Is Me" and "Hank Williams' Ghost," has a way of connecting to your own. The effect is something akin to meeting a stranger who not only knows your shadow self, but somehow already occupies a place in your heart. Don't be surprised if this witty yet harrowing backwoods muse brings you to your knees. -–Alanna Nash
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