Foxtrot Tango Whiskey (Stuff, 1999)

Doug McCollum has a welcome, home-grown sound. His band plays well-crafted country with a blue Texas edge, and the occasional unusual touch, such as the cello on "In Love in Tennessee." The basic guitar, fiddle and drums are complemented by steel, dobro and mandolin, with touches of trumpet and congas.

The song list mixes McCollum's originals with covers of both the well-known ("Singin' the Blues") and the 'celebrity obscure' (Dennis Quaid's "Closer to You"). He sings lovingly of the Lonestar State's intoxicating attractions in Larry Morgan's "Texas Backroad Highway" and Geraint Walker's jump-blues "Deep in the Heart of Texas." And the title track sings the individual praises of the Panther City, Fort Worth. Perhaps Texas' greatest virtue is its distance from the record factories of Los Angeles and Nashville, and the resulting directness of its music. McCollum takes advantage of the lack of industry glare to shorten the distance between himself and his listeners.