Jim Keaveny is Dakota-born school drop out who preferred the university of life to state sponsored education.
He hitched and busked his way around the country living on his wits. "These were the best years of my life", he reminisces, "I was finding myself - with like minds, the guitar, the travelling, and the poetry".
While working on a variety of day jobs to make ends meet. his solo music career began in Austin, Texas and he has released four albums before this one.
In 2009, he moved to the small Texan town of Terlingua where he married a fiddle player and spent five years building a home.
Now, backed by musicians from Austin and the Santa Fe/Albuquerque region, Out Of Time is a comeback album of sorts and clearly finds him in a contented state of mind.
The most prominent musician is David Barclay Gomez who plays accordion on half the tracks and Wurlitzer electric piano on a couple of others.
Travelling tunes Eugene To Yuma and Ridin' Boots are a staple with Out Of Time, the title track, being the album's centrepiece with its kick-ass driving rhythm and a full band sound augmented by trumpet and trombone players.
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Keaveny, wife and friends journey through a range of genres including talking blues, toe-tapping honky tonk and hillbilly, campfire songs, Cajun and some rousing Tex-Mex to boot.
There are fourteen songs in all and an hour's worth of good-time music rounded off with a sing alongThe Yippee-I-Ay Song.
Flipping from style to style gives a sense of energy but also reflects the man's restless spirit and suggests he hasn't done roaming yet.
This is social music, born on the road but with a strong awareness of following in the classic Americana troubadour tradition.
Keaveny may not be breaking any new ground but there's more than enough warmth and humour to appreciate all the same.
Jim Keaveny's website
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