"I'm the only hip person there is." A striking remake of Hicks' best-known song, "I Scare Myself," samples the click of a camera's shutter and features guest vocals from Rickie Lee Jones. A cover of Tom Waits' "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)" suits Hicks' barfly persona perfectly. Hicks merrily jives his way through "Chattanooga Shoe-Shine Boy" and serves up such sparkling originals as "Strike While It's Hot!" "Doin' It!" and "Hell I'd Go!" A bunch of notables show up to endorse and pay tribute -- Elvis Costello, Brian Setzer and Waits himself among them - but no one steals Hicks' show. With tunes like "I Don't Want Love," which argues for food over amore -- "If love makes you give up corn dogs and mustard . . . I don't want love" -- how could they? (RS 851)

PARKE PUTERBAUGH