CD Reviews: Wagons

Henry Wagons and his band pay a couple of visits to the gates of hell, deal with various devils along the way and drain untold glasses of the hard stuff to gain the requisite Dutch courage to deal with snake-haired women, carousing and consoling in the way that tough men do.

But testosterone-charged country rock is only half the story and it's the other half that makes for more absorbing listening.

Wagons' rich baritone sits at ease in low-key ballads such as Beer Barrel Bar and Never Going To Leave, revealing itself as an instrument capable of eliciting a response from organs above the gut.