The No-Hit Wonder - Cory Branan

Throughout his decade-and-a-half-long career, Cory Branan has been too punk for country, too country for punk, too Memphis for Nashville, and probably a little too Cory Branan for anyone's damn good. He has proven himself as a top-notch songwriter, fierce lyricist, and a hyperdynamic performer with the ability to fingerpick finer than 60s Greenwich Village folkies and brutally strum like a proto punk shredder. Across three albums, he's made collective struggles poetic and breakthroughs into sympathetic acts of populist heroism.

A praise-filled pitch is nearly irrelevant, though, because the songs do all the convincing on his new album The No-Hit Wonder. There's a timeless craftsmanship in these deceptively simple songs about love and home, losses and dreams. The pull of settling down and push of life's unavoidable unsettlings inform much of the new record, which navigates the lows while celebrating the highs with fresh urgency.

1. You Make Me
2. The No-Hit Wonder
3. The Only You
4. Sour Mash
5. C'mon Shadow
6. Missing You Fierce
7. All I Got and Gone
8. All the Rivers in Colorado
9. Daddy Was a Skywriter
10. The Highway Home
11. Meantime Blues