1. "Bedtime for Bonzos": The only extraneous track to me -- it's a 30-second ditty played high-pitched, fast and unintelligible. I generally like cool intros and interludes, but this one feels over-consciously (dare I say) White Album to me. Might have worked at the end of the disc, but leading off it unnecessarily trivializes what's to come.

2. "The Morning After": Johnny announces that he'll "come rockin' like the morning after." He does. It's a ballsy tune, with bluesman lyrics and pop hooks punctuated with sax licks (from TexasGigs' own Alan Cohen). The bridge lines are delivered with an Elvis Costello circa "Radio-Radio" stacatto but with a soulful twang to the voice. The song slows and crescendos nicely leading into a balls-out finale.

3. "Miss Sugar Pie": Roy Orbison in Rockabilly mode, but looser. The rhythm section drives this one.

4. "Sulphur Springs Midnight Scat": I'm hearing gypsy jazz in the verses, in a way that would sound at home on a Squirrel Nut Zippers Album. But the chorus is full and melodic pop. Johnny's scat goes up a couple octaves in a way that few rock musicians can pull off. And when he hits the verse that starts "So tell all my friends in Dixie, forget the rising sun," I get the feeling that Johnny's short time as a Texan has flavored his music.

5. "Blackjack": The McCartney comparison is unavoidable here. Feels like ninties renaissance acoustic McCartney with swelling but subdued drums and loose harmonies. Nice rootsy tune.

6. "Life Back Home": An uptempo acoustic pop number with a harmonica riff. It feels like one of the underappreciated songs from Tom Petty's later albums. This one shows off the thing that gets me again and again on the album -- Johnny changes pace three and four times in the course of a song and it never feels forced. I declare him "master of the bridge."

7. "Bi-Polar Bear Blues": "It's a bummer / when we hit summer." So melancholy, but still makes me smile. Again with the nice bridges. Jeff Lynne would be proud.

8. "Target for Tonight": Ben-Foldsy piano but with a lusty lyric. Nice guitar solos too. Would love to hear this one live. In and out in 2:10 and not a wasted note.

9. "Let's Be Poor Together": My new favorite love song, perhaps because I'm superimposing the journey my wife and I have been on the past couple years. This one tricks you into thinking it is just a nice simple ballad, and then there's the climbing and soaring full-band chorus. I think I'd be disappointed in it solo acoustic having heard it this way. Instrumentally and production-wise there's everything but the kitchen sink in here, including a whistling solo. Good example of how this album is really heavily "produced," but without being overproduced.

10. "For Laura": It's a pop ballad, but with a country backbeat. Doesn't stand out for me like the other tunes, but still nice.

11. "She's Real": A falsetto and a funk kick in the beat make this remind me of Prince's "On the Couch" on the verses. The guitar riff between feels like Jimmy Page. This one jams gently.

12. "Who You Are": This is my favorite tune on the disc, and perhaps is the best metaphor for the whole collection. The lyric is classic without feeling hackneyed. Take the chorus: "Hands were made for clappin / Mouths were made for singing / Money was made for thievin / Better get yours while you can / Life was made for livin' / But time is unforgivin' / A woman was made to love you / But a man don't give a damn." It's buoyed with strong piano and guitar, has the ELO-ish bridge and pulls in strings and horns at the climax. Alan and I debated this song a bit today -- It's hopeful-bluesy enough that it could be Gov't Mule's "Soulshine" (Alan), but it's so earnest and poppy that I could almost hear it in a montage on whatever the kids watch now that Dawson's Creek is no more. In the end, I think Alan's right, which is emblematic of the whole album. Johnny pulls in so many styles and does them so well, that they go right to the edge without being over the top.

13. "One Day at a Time": Ends it all with a nice simple ballad. Just Johnny and a guitar and some rhymes (save for some swelling strings towards the end). "Who You Are" feels more like a finale to me, but that's a minor quibble.