Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

I don’t think I’ve heard a country rock project as good as DIAMONDS IN THE SUN by Walt Wilkins & The Mystiqueros since…well, HEAD OVER HEELS by Poco? The first couple Pure Prairie League discs, with Craig Fuller aboard, or maybe the first McGuffey Lane disc, or the first Firefall disc? Yeah, its been a good 30 years since there was a country rock disc this good, easily, but DIAMONDS IN THE SUN is the new mile marker.

DIAMONDS IN THE SUN is one of those rarities, a twelve song project that goes by way too fast, leaving you wanting more even as you let it play another time, all the way through. Pretty when it should be, rough when appropriate, wistful without being maudlin, DIAMONDS IN THE SUN is damn near perfect, and Walt Wilkins & The Mystiqueros leave you with the feeling that their talent vein runs true and long and deep.

I’m listening to “Get Me Gone” right now, there’s this incredibly understated guitar solo happening, and the band is cooking right along behind it, and it’s the sound of a bunch of guys who actually know how to play together in a band, the type of sound and music you don’t hear much anymore, not with ProTools and the like to cover up mistakes, but I’m not hearing that here. No, these guys are something different, and even on “Just Like Hank,” which I almost skipped, thinking “not ANOTHER Hank Williams song?!” they nail it every which way but loose.

Notable tunes on DIAMONDS IN THE SUN? It’s hard to pick a couple, but “You Can’t Outdrink The Truth” is damn near perfect for any genre, especially if you’ve ever (past or present) looked into a bar room mirror a time or six too often and not liked the looks of the guy looking back at you. “Trains I’ve Missed,” the opening track, speaks of opportunities lost with acceptance but without regret, and with such artful turns of phrase that it’s almost impossible to keep from playing it over and over. My own favorite, however, would be “Quiet Moon,” a descriptive mood poem as real as anything I’ve heard in memory.

DIAMONDS IN THE SUN is commercial without sacrificing quality, lyrical without being banal. Free up a slot on your year’s Ten Best List for this one.