Alex Owen prefers his semi-demented pseudonym, and perhaps that's all that needs to be said about Lasers Lasers Birmingham. Owen clearly wants to bridge the gap between Gram Parsons and Joe Ely, with plenty of 70s in between.

Lasers Lasers Birmingham Warning (self-released)

He describes his music as "hard-living, left-of-center country music," and other than the politics there's also a nice Merle Haggard vibe. Owen is smoother--this is perhaps his major influence from the lost decade.

There's some nice pedal steel, some fidding and a couple of fine slow two-steppers. In fact, while Owen seems to like calling this "un-country music," he's got a lot more in common with the 80s new traditionalists than anything coming out of Nashville right now.

This isn't americana. It's country music as it once was played. A little cosmic, I suppose, but very much country in subject and deed. Owen has given himself a weird name, and he likes playing the rebel (don't we all?), but what he's done is record the most country album I've heard in ages. Got to find my cowboy hat and boots and scoot out the door.

Jon Worley