Review: Gary Allan reveals pain on new CD

3/09/2010 08:46:01 AM

Many modern Nashville artists cop the macho swagger of the outlaw movement of country music's past, but few remember how artists like Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson balanced self-aggrandizement with sensitive self-examination.

Gary Allan, to his credit, is tough enough to show a tender side. On his eighth studio album, "Get Off on the Pain," Allan not only rocks with bluster; he also opens his tortured soul and searches for redemption.

A tattooed surfer from California, Allan shows brains as well as brawn on the title cut and on the rampaging "That Ain't Gonna Fly," in which he admits he should know by now that his medicine of choice — whiskey and women — doesn't cure heartaches. But that doesn't keep him from indulging.

However, it's on the ballads where Allan truly flies. "Along the Way" and "She Gets Me" both find a rowdy rambler acknowledging how much his lover sacrifices to keep him. On the musically stripped-down "No Regrets," Allan attunes his gruff-but-powerful voice to convey a hard-earned strength that's come in the five years since his wife Angela's suicide, while admitting, "I still miss her every day." That's the kind of searing honesty too often missing from country radio today.

CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: Played like a hymn, complete with soulful waves of sustained organ notes, "When You Give Yourself Away" is about two selfless lovers who find glory in taking care of each other. Allan sings it with the caressing restraint of a classic R&B singer.