Kirk Van Praag

Kirk Van Praag

"Bury me in East Texas caliche," growls Kirk Van Praag to open Town Crier, apropos of the local songwriter's hardened and cracked sediment of a voice. Follow-up to The Wrest, his 2004 2-CD debut, Town Crier cuts deeps under the point of Van Praag's harrowing outlook, a weary Texas realism brutal in its honesty yet stretching ever toward an unrealized mercy. Production by Leatherbag bolsters the rawness of Van Praag's bark, especially in the unexpected mellotron ("Everybody Sins") and sitar ("Guess"). Though "Pony" feels undeveloped, its odd, lonely levity couches well between the wrecking-ball loss of "Pearly Gates" and "Rehearsed." "This Ole World" ploughs electric blues, and "Wipe the Smile" juxtaposes an acoustic bounce, but it's songs such as "Sunday Best" that best capture the power of Van Praag's songwriting, rising from a place so desperately broken that each word keels with a honed sincerity.