Not another Hillbilly songwriter dude, I hear you say. Yeah, but this one has got the sound just right. Dirty guitars, laconic vocals and JJ writes good songs. He’s supremely ironic, too.

Good songs with hooks that are hard to come by these days. Tennessee-based JJ sounds like he had Alex Chilton and the Cramps cooped up in a Memphis studio, watching over them with a shotgun. ‘Waiting In Vain’ is way rockier than any decent singer-songwriter stuff you may come across this year. And that includes Micah P. Hinson.

Hinson’s music is darker and has that ’50s feel. Toth’s album is more like a slice of 70’s rock: Music for cruising. But JJ ain’t no jock and there is a dark streak running through the album that makes you sit up and listen carefully. Just check out the ever so slightly psycho video for the catchy ‘Doreen’. That’s his wife Roxy in the clip with him, by the way.

Watch JJ Toth Play ‘Doreen’

Sweet melodies and a touch of menace in the air - Highly addictive, but slightly scary stuff.

Toth is definitely tackling this whole Alternative Country and singer-songwriter revival from a new angle. There is a conscious arty element to ‘Waiting In Vain’ that belies the country backwater image you see at the surface. ‘Waiting In Vain’ is a studied, highly ironic look from within at the Alt Country and Americana genre, if you ask me.

At least, that level of irony is what I would expect from an artist who quotes Industrial performance artists Throbbing Gristle and art rockers Roxy Music among his musical favourites.

JJ also likes the grand daddy of whacked out Southern Rock, Alex Chilton, and seminal country rockers the Violent Femmes, by the way. Fair dues to Toth, he carries the torch very well.

We say:

Listen to JJ Toth’s new album here. US residents can also download tracks directly from the MP3 player below. UK and Ireland residents would need to jump to the iTunes link further down to buy the album.

Here’s the iTunes UK link for JJ’s album ‘Waiting In Vain’.

US readers can buy the album on CD here:

UK and Ireland readers can buy the album on CD here: