Bluegrass musician has been the lead singer of for the past six years, and has no relation to the who won the reality show in 2009. replaced guitarist/singer/songwriter , a daunting task, but he's been more than up to the challenge. On , shows off his multi-instrumental prowess picking guitar, bass, and mandolin as well as singing lead and harmony vocals and contributing co-writes to eight of the album's 11 tunes as well as one original that is all his own. The program is about evenly balanced between bluegrass, gospel, and acoustic country tunes. The one exception is the traditional arranged by and fiddler as an old-time, bare-bones lament that showcases the duo's high lonesome harmonies, 's solid picking, and 's haunted fiddle. The album kicks off with a rocking bluegrass tune that wallows in whiskey, lost love, and hopelessness. 's fiddle, the banjo of (of 's band), and ' steel guitar drop tasty solos. Lost love also figures in the lyric of but this time it's unmitigated by drink. wrings emotion out of every word with his hopeless vocal, while 's fiddle weeps in the background. takes on the hazards of love again on co-written with . This time the tongue-in-cheek lyric deals with the mutt that's coming between husband and wife. 's wry vocal is full of humor and pathos. 's country side shines on ' a tale of a country boy missing his home told with self-deprecating humor, and a story-song that traces the lives of two hard-working folks from high school to retirement without the usual lyrical cliches that can make this kind of song embarrassing. 's is given a minimal arrangement, with 's mandolin and 's guitar supporting their sanctified harmonies. gets an old-fashioned gospel trio treatment, with and adding harmonies to 's lead. closes the album with a note of salvation. It brings to mind only this time mama's prayers lead her son back to the light. 's sincerity is especially affecting here. ~ j. poet