If an artist can be judged by the company she keeps, the vocal harmonies of Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Rodney Crowell, and Julie Miller on Jude Johnstone"s second release attest to the esteem she enjoys from fellow singer-songwriters. Though Johnstone"s songs have been recorded by singers from Bette Midler to Johnny Cash, the confessional conviction she invests in the title track, "Hard Lessons," and "Pen and Paper" makes her material seem as personal as a diary. As a narrative of marital breakup, "20 Years" has a melodic bounce at odds with its lyrical despair, yet most of the settings for these older-but-wiser reflections are as somber as Johnstone"s writing is poetic. Some listeners might find the results a little precious, self-consciously so--as if musical maturity mainly involves the morose acceptance of painful truths--but fans of artists from Jackson Browne to Nanci Griffith should recognize a kindred spirit here. --Don McLeese