One minute O'Connor is turning a really good line to illuminate an original thought, or effectively drawing on his Irish-American heritage (Ballad Of Jack Sullivan), the next he's coming up with things that were clichés when King Tut & The Blues Pharaohs were singing, "I shot a man in Memphis but they caught up with me in Thebes." What we have here is The Many Sides of Michael O'Connor, some of which are really interesting, while one, the white bar bluesman, is simply tedious. Even in blues mode, O'Connor is an outstanding guitarist, but it's when he breaks out his acoustic guitar and mandolin to give himself the same kind of perceptive backing that he's provided other singer-songwriters, notably Ray Wylie Hubbard, who produced this album, and Cary Swinney, that it becomes more than a mere sideman project. You sort of have to sympathize with sidemen who look at the guys they work behind and wonder "How hard can this be?" Usually of course, it turns out to be a lot harder than they think, but 7/11ths of the time O'Connor is a very credible candidate for promotion. My guess is that he hasn't yet figured out that, generally speaking, people who are into good songs have very little use for whiteboy blues, and people who are into bar blues aren't real big on sensitive singer-songwriters. Still, even if you don't relate to one or other of his identities, when he's on track, he's very good value.