Grant-Lee Phillips Virginia Creeper Second solo album from the erstwhile leader of Grant Lee Buffalo. Follows up 2001's Mobilize. Effortless-sounding near genius, this, as Phillips and Norah Jones's. Grammy-winning engineer S. Husky Hoskulds hatch a golden egg of a folk-country album that gives and gives. The creaky, mellifluous take on Gram Parsons' Hickory Wind that closes proceedings illuminates all that comes before, but the wistful - in excelsis Always Friends and gently ticking Dirty Secret mark Phillips out as a songwriter of similar class and subtlety. In Dead Rock West's Cindy Wasserman he has found an acutely simpatico back-up vocalist, while fiddler Eric Gorfain's spot-on feel and melodic finesse (see Mona Lisa, for example) can't fail to enchant. Lyrically, too, Phillips enthrals, peopling his songs with mysterious folk heroines such as Susanna Little, Calamity Jane and Josephine Of The Swamps. It all adds up to a fabulous, strangely soothing listen; one upon which much care, forethought and love has clearly been lavished. James McNair

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