There are sardonic artists in Nashville and, alternately, singer/songwriters who treat the stage like a confessional. But House manages to pull off both wry and sincere at once. He then he sets it all to viscid melodies that stick in your ear like a warm hunk of taffy.

When trying to think of a way to describe Matthew Perryman Jones' voice, I keep thinking of the German word gemütlich. It's a state of warmth and comfortableness -- think an amaretto, a fire, and a lazy dog when there's a whiteout outside and ice on the windows.

"I just don't like killin'," John Hiatt says. "I mean, if somebody's about to harm your family, sure. You do you what you have to do. But to plan out the killing a guy who could just as easily be locked up."