Nudie “remember this”

(MAPL) Although “Nudie” is a name that certainly brings to mind the glory days of Country and Western music, as glittering Nudie suits adorned greats like Porter Waggoner and Faron Young (and I seem to remember Webb Pierce caught in a rhinestone cobweb suit), it also invokes Nashville artifice and excess. So the fact that this Canadian country troubadour whose lyrically sublime songs seem spare, sincere, and poignant named himself after the Ukrainian sparkle-suitmaker seems odd. In fact, the sincerity of the late Canuck superpatriot Stompin’ Tom is brought to mind, so maybe Stompie would be a better moniker. But names aside, this is one of the best country albums I’ve heard in a long spell. During that brief moment in the 80s when it felt like Dwight Yoakum, Randy Travis, George Strait, k.d. lang, and Lyle Lovett might re-make the commercial country music industry to be all great again, this would have fit right in, but in 2014 it’s a revelation! Stomp on, Nudie! In fact, stomp in the nude, you earned it!