Album: Luke Doucet & The White Falcon, Blood's Too Rich (Six Shooter/Rounder)

A Canadian rocker with a light voice, a big fat Gretsch and a lucid way with words. No, don't shrug like that. This is almost certainly the freshest sounding old-fashioned record you'll hear this year.

The White Falcon rock like it's long gone out of style (there's a song called "The Day Rick Danko Died") and Doucet himself would be an up-and-coming star in any times but these. Sample lyric: "I'm too old for the girl I love but she doesn't know it yet." The Gretsch just rings like a bell. With the dismal exception of a Cure cover (say what!?), the tunes keep on coming like a runaway train.

Pick of the Album: 'Blood's Too Rich': a song of family dysfunction