Jason Boland & the Stragglers

Rancho Alto (Apex Nashville/Thirty Tigers)

Only in country music – Anglo blues if you will – could “a near-fatal car accident, a polyp on his vocal chords, a divorce and a bout with alcoholism,” as listed in the press release for Rancho Alto, be construed as selling points. Happily, the Austin-based Okie’s sixth studio LP burnishes a gentle but genuinely weathered authenticity that could finally break Boland out of the Red Dirt coral. Produced by one-man Music Row Lloyd Maines, Rancho Alto, with eight of 11 cuts credited to Boland, lopes palpably redemptive. “Down Here in the Hole,” atop Boland’s rich baritone and rawhide fiddle accents, is easy to imagine for George Strait. The Eagles-esque rhyme scheme and acoustic strum of “False Accuser’s Lament,” plus “Between 11 and 2” ticking off an expert Bruce Robison-like execution and Western cautionary tale “Fences” queue up one after another to slow dance away the weary side of life with dignity.

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This article appears in The 1%.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.