After released 2018's wonderful , he realized he'd taken his third album of Topanga Canyon psychedelia-drenched singer/songwriter sound to its zenith, and needed a new direction. He found it inadvertently while appearing on NPR's eTown with . The elder songwriter advised him to travel to Nashville and take advantage of its top-notch studio aces. was more than intrigued. He headed East and enlisted 's as co-producer. The next call was to the iconic fiddler . Growing up in North Carolina, recalled with excitement the fiddle's place in country, mountain, and bluegrass music. hadn't been a session musician since the '90s, but pleaded and cajoled convincingly and he agreed to participate. He and hired an illustrious cast of sidemen: guitarist , bassist , pedal steel player , on woodwinds and harmonica, drummer , and keyboardist . They all holed up at 's Sound Emporium Studio for six days and cut the album live from the studio floor; there are precious few overdubs. sounds exactly like what it is: 's take on Americana, country, bluegrass, and West Texas dancehall music. The set is as cosmic as it is country. Despite looking in the rearview at familial and cultural inspirations of yore, doesn't leave the Topanga Canyon completely behind. "Heaven Makin' Love" comes out of the gate sounding like an early track before , and surround 's tender vocals with a wonderfully charged fusion of mariachi and 's brand of Tex-Mex, complete with jangly Left Coast psychedelia in the bridge. "So Alive" weds rootsy Americana to bluegrass with acoustic flatpicking from doing his best as 's fiddle swirls around him. "'69 Corvette" recalls -era with its poetic lyrics offering a narrative of longing and homesickness and accompanied by crying pedal steel. The overdubbed backing chorus is forlorn and Baroque-sounding. "O'Girl" is an outlier with its lilting woodwinds, rock & roll snares, and screaming electric leads amid swelling vocal choruses and keyboards. Meanwhile, the erstwhile early rock & roll on "Enemies" evokes and in a maximalist country song. "El Camino Real" is a stomping country-bluegrass jam with upright piano, wailing fiddle, and jangling guitars. The album closer is a re-recording of "Korean Tea" that originally cut with in the '90s. This version offers a modern take on 's Topanga Canyon sound. is 's most personal and direct collection of songs. They are wrought poetically from memory and inspired by the excellence of the sublime performances from his sidemen. ~ Thom Jurek