After a seven-year absence from the studio, country-rock "outlaw" Steve Young (writer of Waylon Jennings"s "Lonesome, On"ry and Mean") has scored a spectacular return to form with this gorgeously sung, intriguingly varied collection. Young moves from knockout to knockout here, nailing his primordial mountain-music rant "East Virginia," the exclamatory protest "Worker"s Song (A Handful of Earth)," and even an unearthly, slow take of Lloyd Price"s classic R&B tune, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy," before turning down the flame for a heart-wrenching stroll through Merle Haggard"s "Sometimes I Dream." He even gets in a little honky-tonkin" on Tom T. Hall"s "The Year Clayton Delaney Died." His own ballad, "No Longer Will My Heart Be Truly Breaking," displays not only his voice--which has never sounded better--but also the eclectic, blues-folk-country songwriting style that"s made him impossible to categorize but nearly puts him in a class by himself. --Robert Baird