Winnipeg-based Dave McLean, recording in Nashville with {the rhythm section of} Ontario's roots band Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, has a genuine feel for storytelling. Using a shopworn yet effective singing voice and confident bending of guitar strings, the sixty-something bluesman serves up substantial original songs (to mention one, "Shades Of Grace," which poignantly takes a gospel path) and stamps his own sly accent on well-chosen songs belonging to contemporaries Tom Waits and Ray LaMontagne as well as influences Tampa Red and Skip James.