Wave on Wave (Republic/Universal, 2003)

If you live in Texas, all you need to know is this: Pat Green has a new CD out. But if a callous kismet has decreed that you should be one of the unfortunate residing in one of the other 49, there's good news: You may be about to learn what only Lone Star Staters have known heretofore.

Pat Green has attracted a rabid cult following in his home state - he sold over 200,000 albums on his own private label before attracting Universal's attention - and may be about to finally go national. The title track about the life-saving qualities of love of his second major CD is already getting some airplay. Green's other songs run the gamut from the Haggardesque working man anthem "Guy Like Me" to the more spiritual "Eden's Gate." He's joined by some pretty impressive pipes from friends like Willie Nelson and Ray Benson (on "Elvis") and Ray Wylie Hubbard (on "If I Was the Devil"), and Green more than holds his own. There's not a lot of angst or negativity on "Wave on Wave." Green describes his own music thusly: "The cowboy rides away with the girl, and the bad guys are all dead. That's the kind of songs I write. I don't have a big dark deep side."

If your own dark side has been getting enough of a workout from CNN and the morning paper, you might need to relax and ride a couple of Pat Green's waves.