Album Review: This Right Here Is Buck 65 by Buck 65

Obviously ready for prime time, in 2004 Buck 65 allowed his new label, V2, to collect (and remaster) nine of his independent Halifax recordings, and added three new ones of his own, for the 2005 collection This Right Here Is Buck 65. The former Richard Terfry occupies a neglected middle ground between underground rap, indie/electronic, and country-folk; he paints skewed slice-of-life portraits closer to Alan Jackson than 50 Cent, backs them up with clean, canny beats and reverbed guitars, and then delivers them in a voice that, if not as gravelly as Tom Waits, could at least be described as emanating a fine cloud of chalk dust. Buck isn't a talented rapper, but he has a gift for expressive storytelling and evokes a range of emotions with his limited, mumbling vocals.

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