Chris Canterbury Quaalude Lullabies (CD)

(Rancho Delux Records) 9 tracks, digipack.

Nashville and Louisiana native Chris Canterbury can't be accused of false advertising with his latest effort, Quaalude Lullabies. In nine tracks Canterbury tells with remarkable honesty about depression, loneliness and addiction. The template is set right from the opening track, "The Devil, The Dealer & Me -The Dark Side Mastered," with little more than an acoustic guitar and Canterbury's deep, heavily emotive vocals.

The nine-track record came five years after his last album and is beautiful not only for the poetic despair of the lyrics, but also for its stripped-back delivery, which comes across like Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" or Willie Nelson's "Red Headed Stranger." "When I sat down to write this project, I tried to present each subject like a simple Saturday morning kitchen conversation. That's how I approach songwriting," he said recently, which begs the question of just how gritty those morning breakfast conversations actually are.

Canterbury produced the album himself, and while it sounds professional and clean, it feels like you're listening to demos from your bedroom, due in part to the seemingly confessional nature of the lyrics. The album closer Back On The Pills, about a cheap motel room where the narrator reflects on the way he destroyed his life, contains some of the album's strongest lines, such as "I found Jesus in the nightstand"; and "the thought of being sober is the worst part of coming down".

In addition to the eight original compositions, there is also a cover version of Will Kimbrough's Yellow Mama, about the last moments before death in the electric chair in Alabama, a theme lightened a bit by the song's almost breezy waltz arrangement. The somberness and loneliness that characterize the album also make it so appealing that it will be played again and again. Born In the USA may be Springsteen's best-selling album, but most music fans will say Nebraska is his best.