Hard drinking and even harder women, broken relationships and life on the road. 'Trouble in Mind' delivers on most of the traditional concerns of country music with a batch of literate songs that (the curse of Texan country this) may not be country enough or straightforward enough for mainstream country success, but too country for wider acceptance. Brad Jones, fresh from production duties with Over The Rhine and Josh Rouse, conjures a rich warm sound from the excellent band that includes veteran steel player Al Perkins and guitarists Will Kimborough and Pat Buchanan. 'Drunken Poet's Dream' opens the album with mandolin, fiddle and dirty guitar and a tale of wild living. Here and elsewhere the band never really rip it up, and live these up tempo numbers are likely to be less restrained. 'Girl Downtown' is one of those slightly corny good hearted country songs of young love (think Trisha Yearwood's 'She's in Love With the Boy') that will make you smile despite yourself. 'Beaumont' with its chattering percussion is a song of wistful regret for what might have been with fine guitar and dobro, 'Faulkner Street' is another hellraising good time song and 'Don't Let Me Fall' a cry of desperate desolation. Good stuff.