Levon Helm

Electric Dirt has the best hippie-country-rock album cover since the first Marshall Tucker record. Even better is how the music more than lives up to those cool graphics. Levon opens with a fantastic rendition of the Dead's "Tennessee Jed," which sounds like it's 1971 all over again. A good chunk of Electric Dirt, in particular the syrupy organs, woozy horns and soulful backup singers, recalls vintage Randy Newman or even Geoff Muldaur. Then again, there's no mistaking that raspy drawl.