ALBUM REVIEW: Jim Lauderdale Sounds Right at Home on ‘My Favorite Place’

The title of Jim Lauderdale’s new album is just right. On My Favorite Place, his 37th album, the ambassador of Americana has settled into his musical comfort zones: western swing, rockabilly, country weepers, bluegrass rambles, and folk ballads. He’s enjoying himself, too, crooning in his unmistakable voice, following the music where it takes him, and inviting listeners along for the ride.

Layers of aching pedal steel weave through sprightly fiddling on the title track, a bright honky-tonk shuffle that captures the singer’s yearning to be wherever his love happens to be (“any time I’m there with you / it’s always my favorite place”). “Sweethearts Remember” opens quietly with gospel-inflected piano that dashes quickly into a breathless scamper that combines western swing with Django jazz and Andrews Sisters harmonies, courtesy of Lillie Mae Rische.

Close your eyes and you might think you’re listening to George Jones warble about his woes in “I’m a Lucky Loser,” Lauderdale’s own tale of what it means to be down on your luck. Waves of pedal steel kick off the mournful, pop-inflected ballad “You’ll Be Gone By Then,” a slow waltz about regret and missed opportunities replete with ’60s-style surf guitar stylings. The strolling western tune “What’s Important After All” — think Roy Rogers and Dale Evans — saunters along, meditating on how people decide what’s most important in life and how sometimes the little things aren’t so important after all.

My Favorite Place is vintage Jim Lauderdale, who once again demonstrates his cleverness with his lyrics and his brilliant way of writing a classic country song brimming with heartbreak or yearning.

Jim Lauderdale’s My Favorite Place is out June 21 on Sky Crunch Records.