MY PRIMITIVE JOY CD

Michael Tarbox leads The Tarbox Ramblers, a band best known for a roughhewn sound drawing equally from century-old blues traditions, Appalachian music and gothic Americana. But with “My Primitive Joy,” his solo debut, the music is changing. Recorded in a converted pharmacy on the outskirts of Nashville, his new album bypasses the Ramblers’ backwoods squall entirely. Instead, Tarbox gives us an ambitious set centering on acoustic songs with understated melodies and spare arrangements.

Standouts include the title track, a gorgeous tangle of pedal steel that gains the world by letting it go, the coming-of-age tale Have You Been To The City? and the dream realms of At Dusk. Elsewhere, the sunny melody of Whose Fault But Mine? belies its story of apprehension and revelation.

Tarbox’s expressive singing and vivid lyrics are front and center here, and a spacious production gives the listener plenty of room to engage them. That can only be a good thing because, heading into uncharted waters, “My Primitive Joy” is Tarbox’s best work yet.