After a series of rapid-pace releases that included multiple co-writes with Robert Hunter, Jim Lauderdale has ever so slightly pulled back on his output. (Those keeping score will still note that he’s averaged at least one album per year since 1998.) Still, if Lauderdale’s current intent is to cull the best material for one record, then London Southern finds the plan paying off. Although this Nashville-based multitasker might otherwise seem out of his element recording in a place with more Brits than grits, London clearly provides a sympathetic setting. With Nick Lowe’s backing band in tow, Lauderdale mines his usual influences—Buck Owens, George Jones, Eddy Arnold and The Beatles chief among them—while also affirming an ability to pen songs that come across like instant classics, even on first encounter. As always, his diversity is impressive; the honky-tonk sway of “Sweet Time” and the irrepressible twang of “Don’t Shut Me Down” rest easy among the soulful strains of “What Have You Got to Lose” and “Different Kind of Groove Some Time.” Like legions of British musicians before them, Lowe’s band is adept at picking, plucking and getting into an Americana spirit, making London Southern an admirable pond-crossing collaboration.