Steve Forbert isn"t the first singer to pay homage to the great Jimmie Rodgers--Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard both recorded fine tribute albums in their day--but he may well be the most unlikely. That doesn"t make Any Old Time any less satisfying than previous tributes to the country music pioneer. Known variously as "the Singing Brakeman" and "America"s Blue Yodeler," Rodgers was hillbilly music"s first superstar, and he sang in a sweet, mellifluous voice that was widely imitated. Forbert is a fine songwriter, but his raspy croon has always been a bit of an acquired taste. Their voices couldn"t be more different. Both singers, however, were born in Meridian, Mississippi, and one of Rodgers"s distant cousins even taught Forbert how to play guitar. Coproduced by the E Street Band"s Garry Tallent, who worked with Forbert on his 1988 release Streets of This Town, Any Old Time contains 12 of Rodgers"s best-known songs. Forbert is reverential without being slavish to the material. He keeps things traditional on "Why Should I Be Lonely?" and "Waiting on a Train," both of which feature longtime Jerry Lee Lewis sideman Ken Lovelace on fiddle. But he transforms "Ben Dewberry"s Final Run" into a greasy electric-blues number, with Bill Hullett picking a heavily reverbed electric guitar and Bobby Ogdin working the Hammond B-3, and he plays "My Rough and Rowdy Ways" as a Buddy Holly-style rockabilly rave-up. Naturally, Forbert gets off a few Rodgers-style yodels here and there, even if they"re hardly in the same league as the originals. No matter: Forbert may sound a little ragged, but his heart is in the right place. --David Hill