sultry come-on in "Got a Feelin' for Ya." The record's few lapses -- an awkwardly countrified recasting of Nick Drake's "Time Has Told Me" and a version of the Replacements' "They're Blind" that bleeds self-pity -- make one yearn for more hard-bitten Willis originals on the order of "Fading Fast" and "Not Long for This World." But by refusing to be confined to a radio-friendly corral, Willis has fashioned an album that's more purely country. (RS 808)

PARKE PUTERBAUGH