Randy Houser

Nashville songwriter turned country crooner Randy Houser isn't overtly retro like, for example, Marc Broussard. But the Mississippi native's gutsy balladry and muscular rockers do feel like a kind of throwback to the outlaws (Waylon and Willie) and to 1960s Southern soul. On tracks like "Back to God," "Paycheck Man" and "Something Real," the guitars totally pop and the piano keys twinkle. There are even touches of pedal steel and organ that possess a faint whiff of vintage musk.