CD REVIEWS COUNTRY

Tim McGraw, "Southern Voice" (Curb)

McGraw sharply criticized Curb Records last year for issuing his third "greatest hits" collection rather than release this album, which sat on a shelf for nearly two years after it was completed. McGraw sees this, his 10th studio effort, as a way of reclaiming his voice. If only more of that feistiness were evident in the songs he selected. Things start out promisingly with "Still," with its pulsating modern rock beat behind his Louisiana twang -- think of it as Coldplay with drawl -- but lyrically it digs a bit deeper than the melodramatic but superficial hits so closely associated with McGraw. Then "Ghost Town Train," about a long-lost love, taps the kind of wistful folk-country that brings Gordon Lightfoot to mind. The leadoff single "It's a Business Doing Pleasure With You" has some fun, as one-dimensional as it is, with the up-tempo lament of a poor schlump who falls for a gold digger. But it's back to hyper-emotional business as usual with "If I Died Today" and "I'm Only Jesus." The title track doesn't go much beyond running down a laundry list of important (mostly) Southern writers, musicians and politicians. If McGraw can hone his musical vision, that Southern voice might find something even more potent to sing about.

RANDY LEWIS, LOS ANGELES TIMES

POP/ROCK

Wolfmother, "Cosmic Egg" (Interscope)

Like Queens of the Stone Age without the tongue-in-cheek cleverness, the young Aussie outfit, led by singer/guitarist Andrew Stockdale, winnowed down blurry stoner rock and vintage metal into its essentials: high, throaty yelps with repetitious, fantastical lyrics, contagious melodies and flaky (in a good way) bridges. Throw a rock and you'd hit an influence from 1973. Yet Wolfmother managed to avoid pastiche while toying with cliché. Fast-forward to the present: Stockdale replaces members and hires moody producer Alan Moulder (Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails). The propulsion and towering sludge of its past still infuse the band's sound, from the spaced-out "Fields" to the dirt-ball drama of "10,000 Feet." But there's more weight to Stockdale's warble throughout the new mixed, murky bag, even in sillier flights such as "In the Castle." The melodies and arrangements of "Cosmic Egg" are less cluttered despite the band's heritage in metal marauding. Light breaks forth in the bright, open "California Queen," and darkness unfolds in the hemmed-in "Far Away." It's a good "Egg."

Wolfmother performs Nov. 14 at the State Theatre in Minneapolis.

A.D. AMOROSI, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

FOLK

Sharon Isbin, "Journey to the New World" (Sony Classical)

You could call this the St. Louis Park-reared classical guitarist's folk album. The idea is to trace folk music from English Renaissance lute music such as "Greensleeves" to Joan Baez and fiddler/composer Mark O'Connor, who plays his "Strings and Threads Suite" with Isbin. This is quiet, gentle music, for the most part (the O'Connor suite is pretty flashy), that rewards close listening. "Joan Baez Suite," composed for Isbin by John Duarte, includes lovely settings of "Wildwood Flower," "Silkie" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" with vocals by Baez, one of Isbin's childhood heroes.

JOHN FLEMING, ST. PETERSBURG TIMES