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Nothing in Randall Bramblett's resumé (Southern rockers Sea Level, sideman to Steve Winwood) will prepare you for the brilliance of No More Mr. Lucky. In the tradition of great Southern writers like Faulkner and Harry Crews, Bramblett melds God, Man, and Nature in a manner that is simultaneously laid-back and intense--only a Southern writer could write a song called "Sunflower" without making it effete. Too, it is unlikely that a Yankee would come up with such an obvious explanation of the Human Condition as: "First He made the mountains / Then He filled up the sea / He lost His concentration / Workin' on you and me." Bramblett tosses off such lines with wry sincerity but none of the precious self-consciousness often found in the singer-songwriter world. Add the 3-D production by John Keane that places the sound in front of your speakers rather than in them and you have a record that magnificently updates the soulful sound of the South. --Michael Ross