There are rare times when it's all in the grooves, and Eric Church’s debut is one of those times. His new project is a sonically breathtaking, lyrically compelling collection that hearkens to the line of thoughtful, rugged individualists who have always given country music its most challenging and nuanced work. It is a line that passes through Merle Haggard to Waylon Jennings to John Prine and is finding a handful of torchbearers in this new century.

There is wistful reflection on fate in "What I Almost Was" and "The Hard Way," where insight and maturity are always hard-won, and offhand looks at male/female relationships in "Can't Take It With You" and "Two Pink Lines." "These Boots" spins a scuffed but comfortable metaphor for the drifter, the man more comfortable in motion, searching for another song, another love, another audience, as satisfaction and regret race neck and neck down life's backstretch. "Lightning" is a piece of modern folk poetry dealing with a condemned man's last moments, and "The Hag" is a paean to the King of the thoughtful country troubadors. "Before She Does" is a howlingly funny missive on lost love that pulls in elements from all over the cultural board, and "Sinners" deals with coming of age in the face of generations of self-knowledge concerning sin and salvation.

"Honesty is my number one responsibility," Church says. "If you listen to this, you'll find out who I am."

"I knew I wanted to be a recording artist," continues the Granite Falls, North Carolina-born artist, "but I knew I wanted to be a songwriter more, and if the record deal had never happened I would have been OK because I really wanted to be a successful songwriter. When I got that first check from Sony/ATV Tree and they were paying me money to do it, I thought I had arrived because I was getting paid to do something I'd be doing anyway."

He began getting cuts, including Terri Clark's "The World Needs A Drink." Then, Arthur Buenahora at Sony Tree introduced him to producer Jay Joyce; the two clicked instantly and began cutting demos. The first guitar/vocal demo they cut became the basic track for "Lightning" and set the tone for all that would follow.

Once signed to Capitol Records Nashville, Church and Joyce set about capturing Church's essence in Joyce's basement studio. The result is a CD that launches Church with a firm identity both musically and lyrically, and gives him his own niche in a diverse country landscape. It is music with real personality. His is music that looks its listener in the eye and speaks plainly about the human condition. It travels the land where heartache produces both sorrow and strength, where wisdom is tinged with sadness and love is always aware of its own mortality.

"I feel like we're saying something," he says. "These are songs about what's going on in the world - this is what I think. You can agree or disagree. I just don’t want them to hear it and go, 'That's nice' and move on. We just jump out from the start and say, 'Here it is.' I personally like music that goes way out and picks a side. And I think we've made an honest record. I don’t think there's a song on there that's not me."