The Gourds: ''Noble Creatures''

Kaleidoscopic country-rockers The Gourds continue defining their own unique musical genre with Noble Creatures. "Gourds music" is by now a generally accepted term that fans and critics alike are forced to use when attempting to describe the effortless blend of American musical forms the band has implored since its birth in Austin in 1992. On Noble Creatures songwriters Kevin Russell and Jimmy Smith continue their quirky ramble down the mountain, past dusty delta back porches and through the hanging moss of southwest Louisiana. In classic Gourds fashion the Mussel Shoals rekindling of "How Will You Shine" rides shotgun with the honky-soul of "Moon Gone Down," but on Noble Creatures it's Russell's ballads that mark the album as an epaulet on the shoulder of an already mighty career. "Promenade" soars with a from-the-gut tale of squandered happiness and courses with Danko-like emotion. In "Steeple Full of Swallows" the desolate yet hopeful bandy of banjo and guitar trickles along a delicate dream-song, cut by the acid of Russell's sharp yet tuneful holler. As relevant and irreverent as ever, The Gourds are Noble Creatures indeed.