Plethora of picked guitar, homely vocals, and everyday livin' lyrics are the building blocks for Alex Woodard's eponymous album. His themes - love, loss, looking back, and looking forward - are universal, the feel of the set however, cozily intimate, as the singer/songwriter shares his stories of life at its most humdrum, yet most beguiling. Woodard hails from California, but his heart belongs to the left coast, and the small, off the beaten track southern towns that time seemingly forgot. You can hear it in the tinges of bluegrass, country, and southern rock that shade the arrangements, the touch of hillbilly fiddle and the evocative picked guitar that waltzes across the entire album. The backings conjure up a down home feel, Woodard's raspy vocals an air of authenticity to his words. Love is the crux of the set, with his loved ones each strikingly drawn - the bossy woman with the silver "Hoops", the adored wife and mother of "Beautiful Now", the dearly departed of "The Table", the summer love that never fades in "Photograph" included. But it's not all happily ever after, as "Reno" illustrates, while "Halfway" finds Woodard rather betwixt and between. But eventually home calls him back where he belongs, where the overwhelming impression is of people satisfied with life as is, best expressed on "Heathen's Prayer". Like John Cougar Mellancamp, Woodard pens tales instantly recognizable, for they're American stories we've all lived and shared, with the album holding a mirror to us all.
