RAY WYLIE HUBBARD ***** Delirium Tremolos Philo Records

The days are long gone when anybody over 30 was deemed surplus to rock 'n' roll requirements. Indeed, some of these more grizzled survivors often seem more vital and alive than the young wannabes. Invariably, these veterans have passed the point of having their heads turned and their sound mauled by an indifferent industry. They know their audience and their audience knows them, having in many cases grown with them. Texan songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard is now 58 and is going through a purple patch in the autumn of a notable career. His most recent albums have toyed with the blues, but this brilliantly evocative collection of mostly covers is marked by a sense of reflection on a life lived in the hard lane. Aided by Gurf Morlix's moody and meaty production and supported by a talented cast including Eliza Gilykson, James McMurty, Jack Ingram and Slaid Cleaves, Hubbard drags his lived-in voice through a set of scenarios from armed robbery to dodgy backwoods parties. The music veers from rounded Knopfler-like settings (The Beauty Way) to a powerful a cappella version of a Woody Guthrie lyric and finally to a sustained bluesy quartet, climaxing with the cooler-n-hell Cooler-N-Hell and McMurty's epic Choctaw Bingo. Roots music with attitude. www.raywylie.com