Crazy Heart reminded us that the Oscar-winning actor could sing, so the surprise here isn't Bridges' worn-denim vocals, which producer T Bone Burnett surrounds with his trademark chamber-country atmospherics. Rather, it's Bridges' songwriting on appealingly idiosyncratic cuts like the philosophical ''Tumbling Vine'' and ''Falling Short,'' on which he wonders if God put him here to ''bushwhack a path.'' Spoken like the Dude himself. B+
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