Hank Williams, Jr.

Playing blues-rock as much as country, Hank Jr.'s first album in six years kicks off with a loud auctioneer-tempoed farm rap conceivably inspired by his buddy Kid Rock. Then things turn gloomy: In "Red White and Pink-Slip Blues," mills close while the repo man lurks, and "Sounds Like Justice" weds class resentment with law and order. There's some requisite family-tradition autobiography, plus three songs about roads and two about sturdy male friendships. And though the cowbell boogie "High Maintenance Woman" shares its name with Toby Keith's 2007 hit, it's not a cover.