NOW Magazine ***

West Coast outlaw country picker Ben Rogers’s sophomore effort starts with the sinewy twang of Wild Roses, a heady interpretation of the Cain and Abel story set in the Garden of Eden. It’s gorgeous and tragic, and benefits from sparkling production. Its immediate follower, Wanted, works less well, mainly because of said production: a grittier approach would better suit the song’s simple, jaunty feel. It has a righteous (and dirty) guitar solo but still sounds too polished.