Country and Western? Contemporary folk? What do a cowpoke from Southern Alberta and an introspective, edgy girl from Pennsylvania/Colorado/Texas have in common? More than you would expect. It's all rock and roll, as someone once said. In this case, both artists have produced noir-ish albums with good lyrics, and excellent, multi-influenced arrangements.

Edmonton's Corb Lund 's Five Dollar Bill is alternative western music, and like a lot of other fine Canadian albums, it was nominated for a Juno award. Influences collide on this album. Ian Tysonesque rodeo riders emerge from Lund's childhood around cattle ranches. The edge noir probably comes from his years with an indie band. Texas listners will hear the Austin sound before they learn that he spent some time down there writing lyrics. Corb and his energetic Lund Band and move like one huge, vivid, synchronized organism, often playing up-tempo western dancehall two-step, but churning in jazz, blues, and nuevoeurogypsy. My favorite track is "Apocalyptic Modified Blues." Some of the words come from The Book of the Revelation and the mood reminds me a little of "The Man Comes Around" by the late Johnny Cash. The folky, minor, uptemo "There Are No Roads Here" is reminiscent of James Keelaghan's "Sweetgrass Moon." Lund's homey voice sings, "There are no roads here, no signposts, to guide one through this dark land." His world is western landscapes, western people, and interesting details.

Two especially interesting inhabitants are the old "Bucking Horse Rider" who is lucky to be alive, and the dedicated oil field worker in "Roughest Neck Around," who's "...got the power in his hands to pull the dragons up." Imagine driving on a sunny but ominously unsettling day along the foothills of the Rockies, past the coulees and ranches south of Calgary...

...Imagine a midnite ride along the foothills of the Rockies into Denver, the view in sopisticated greys and blacks, houses and stores marked by the bright lights of Libby Kirkpatrick's lyrics. On Goodnight Venus, most of the details of specific time and place have been abstracted, stripped from Kirkpatrick's inner world. Instead, the songs...about men, parents, childhood, the state of the world...are fleshed out by thoughts, images and sometimes sharp phonetics. My pick is the sleek, crisp "Silver Road," a slow, nervy love song which features complex references to red, silver and grey, and water, roads, and birds. "But I didn't listen / The clear water lapped at my ankles and drew me down below the surface where silver rocks lay." Kirkpatrick's powerful voice slides and wails effortlessly like grey water in silver mountain rapids! But as with Lund's album, the key reason that this edgy, urban album succeeds is the excellence of the arrangements and back-up band. There are a number of styles on the album, including her own stripped down guitar folk and a countryish track, but much of the arranged material is derived from jazz and blues, looping steamy night music forward from mid-century clubs. My favorite is the percussion and bass-heavy arrangement of "To A Child."("To a child the world is on fire"). I am told that the back-up artists are all studio musicians, except for Michael Shay, the cellist. Perceptive studio musicans indeed!

Austin! It must be the brief sojourns in Austin that they have in common! Maybe. But the take home point is that a number of factors make a successful album. It isn't just a good voice, or snazzy writing, though both are essential for a quality album of original material. I've heard so many good artists effect trite, maudlin, muddy, disynchronous arrangements. But here they are fine-lined and fresh and the albums are really good. Makes sense! Since these albums are so good, would I recommend adding them to your collection? Only if you're a generalist. I liked Corb Lund's colorful views of the West, while Libby Kirkpatrick's ghost images lost my attention after the first twenty miles. You may react in just the opposite way