Cooking Vinyl

The arch-top Gibson on the album cover of Tooth And Nail indicates where Billy Bragg’s first solo album since 2008’s Mr. Love and Justice is headed. Recorded live in five days, without overdubs, at producer Joe Henry’s basement studio in Pasadena, Calif., the album is the most intimate and accessible of Bragg’s career. Soft-spoken arrangements drive the sound and Bragg’s strident politics are forgone for his songs of the heart, whichdespite Bragg’s political reputation, have always been where his talent lies. Along with pedal steel whiz Greg Leisz, keyboardist Patrick Warren, upright bassist David Piltch and session drummer extraordinaire Jay Bellerose, Bragg evokes the language of his hero Woody Guthrie in spots (Guthrie’s “I Ain’t Got No Home,” “Do Unto Others” ), but the beauty of “Goodbye, Goodbye” and “Your Name on My Tongue” prove that Bragg is a songwriter willing to bypass gimmicks and even quirkiness for classic sentiment.