It's been a long six years since the release of American Refrigerator, but the South London singer-songwriter's clearly not be sitting on his thumbs in the interim. Signed to a new label, he's shrugged off past Dylan comparisons to produce an album of Americana that, variously rocky and balladeering, narrows the reference points to Don McLean (especially on the gospel-blues piano ballad You Got A Man Like Me Loving You) and John Prine. Indeed, the fresh out of prison When Tomorrow Comes (which, like several numbers, features the fabulous Siobhan Parr on harmonies), could have come from one of Prine's own early classics.

With songs that variously deal with how love can bring light to a dead end life (the sad waltzing, organ and string quartet coloured Dreams About Beautiful Girls) and battles with the booze (the rootsy mandolin flecked Honey I'm Home and Rose In A Bottle, both which evoke thoughts of Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance), a sense of striving to be a better man runs through the album.

If I'm being honest, I'm less taken with its uptempo numbers, the rocking country Coming Apart At The Seams and the chugging hobo blues Road And Rails with its slide and steel. But when he switches to plaintive acoustic melancholy for something like In The Cold Light Of Morning, which features Matt Percival on dobro while skilled guitarist Gunnar Frick switches to accordion, or the lovely, string quartet and guitar title track with its melodic evocations of an old Confederate hymn, then I'm weak at the knees.

There's one non-original here, and while Townes Van Zandt's If I Needed You has been covered umpteen times, Sutherland's arrangement with its different vocal and melody phrasings and the colours added by Frick's lonesome lap and pedal, still manages to bring something new. Don't keep him waiting, it's time Sutherland was invited to become a full member of your collection.

Mike Davies July 2008