Given the understated boast in the title of his debut album
My Kind of Music
, it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that
Ray Scott
fashions himself as a bit of a modern-day outlaw, a contemporary spin on such classic
country
mavericks as
Waylon Jennings
and
Johnny Cash
. He has a deep, powerful baritone, part
Waylon
and part
Dick Curless
, and his music is lean, spare, and muscular -- confident, but never flashy, since
Scott
has the easy assurance of somebody who knows what he's all about as a singer, musician, and writer. And he is a writer, too, penning (or co-authoring) every one of the 13 songs that make up his first-rate debut. The sound is straight out of the '70s, with driving electric guitars and
rock
-influenced
beats punctuated every so often with a soul-searching acoustic ballad, yet it doesn't sound like he's faithfully re-creating classic
outlaw country
-- he's staying true to the tradition, yet he's slyly updated it with a big, hard, glossy sound and a modern-day swagger. Best of all,
knows not to take himself too seriously; there's a genuine undercurrent of wry humor threaded throughout the album, coming to a head on the very funny, very appealing title song, where he dumps a
Whitney Houston
fan because she doesn't dig his kind of music. Because
is equally convincing when he's strutting or when he's cracking jokes or crooning a lovelorn ballad,
winds up as one of the most emotionally satisfying
albums of 2005. Musically, it may stay within the confines of modern
, but
proves that it's a rich territory with this excellent debut. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine