The man's nearly 70, so if anyone deserves to record a mellow modern country album, call it 'Western Stars', load it up with songs with names like "The Wayfarer" and "Chasin' Wild Horses" (both good songs btw), and put a whole lot of strings on it, it's him. Even better, it's good - high points coming deep into its gradual burn at tracks 10 and 11, "Stones" (the "those are only the lies you told me" song) and "There Goes My Miracle", which is maybe actually too simple, but such an earworm of an anthem that it doesn't matter. At times his vocals remind me of Eddie Vedder, at others Nick Cave, but also, he sounds the way you'd expect Bruce Springsteen to sound at 70 (69 actually).
