Pizza Deliverance (New West, 2005)

"Pizza Deliverance" starts with a surprisingly mellifluous a capella vocal from Hood, leading into a sweet mandolin-and-steel melody on "Bulldozers and Dirt," a classic love story about a trailer park resident and the man who tries to steal her TV. "Too Much Sex (Too Little Jesus)" is an upbeat indictment of televangelists. In response to the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Hood wrote a country-rock waltz called "The President's Penis Is Missing." Hood's song for his great-grandmother, "Box of Spiders," is about as close as he'll come to sentimentality. Gran Gran recalls her husband's last words, "It's hotter than hell in here." On "Nine Bullets," bluesy rock sets the backdrop for a lyric about all the people that the singer hates, but then Hood cheers up as he sings in "Zoloft," "I used to be so unhappy singing songs about killing." "Pizza Deliverance" is very good and highly recommended.