Born and raised on the other side of the world from the land of hope and glory, one can be forgiven for not investing into Americana as much aswell Americans. Sure we got Dylan and we got Springsteen and also Johnny Cash but we never really got them if you know what I mean. Not out of ignorance but because we had our own culture to digest. Somewhere, Woody Harrelson is pleading to Wesley Snipes: "I can hear Jimmy!"

After taking a back seat to the likes of processed boy bands and numerous forms of metal for a few years, the singer-songwriter is starting to regain its exposure in the musical world. Artists as stylistically diverse as John Mayer, Ryan Adams and Mason Jennings have shown how brutally honest one can be from just an acoustic guitar and their naked voice.

Massachusetts debutant (via Northwestern Florida) Casey Abrams comes prepared on Thirteen American Ghosts with a guitar case full of crackling stories and a voice so rich and warm that it seems a shame I'm not listening to it on an old turntable. Pitched vocally somewhere between Paul Simon and Don McLean (I bet he gets that a lot), Abrams is a refreshing change from the Vedder and Buckley sound-a-likes littering the scene.

Opening with 'Nobody's Song' a tune that initially echoes a long lost Buddy Holly or Eddie Cochran number, Abrams shows his fun side ("This is the song I would have written for you, but it's written for nobody now"), even sneaking in a chuckle at his own humour towards the end. A bit of Tin Pan Alley is even displayed in 'Twelve Bar Blues' with its rousing bar room sing-a-long and accordion accompaniment showing Casey's self-proclaimed "tramp art" is not unfounded.

A trio of gunfighter songs, evoking the style of Marty Robbins and the aforementioned Cash, pepper the set. 'How Much Killing Can One Man Need?' details the wild murdering spree of a man named McGhee while 'In The Canyon' is the story of a lawman who has his marked men in his sights. The pick of the three however is 'My Doppelganger'. It is a great tale of a killer who sees that an innocent man (whose is a dead ringer for our anti-hero) has taken the fall for the crime and is executed via the dreaded hanging tree. The killer soon comes to the realization that his own days are numbered.

Though for any concerns you may have that Abrams is too much stuck in the past, he certainly has his finger on the pulse of current events. 'Civilized Man' sums up the frustration of the common person in these troubled times: "I'm a civilized man, but my temperature is rising, I've had about all I can stand". Similar sentiments are replicated in 'The Times They Have-A-Changed' with no prizes in guessing where he appropriated that title from.

The sweetest moment on the album comes with 'Moonstruck', a simple love song about falling for someone almost immediately. Sure it's a tad mushy, but hey even the first few Beatles albums weren't short on sentimentality, and we can't all have hearts of stone can we?

Abrams has a great knack as a storyteller. It's one thing to write a decent tune, but to give it special meaning is something even more memorable. If the great American Songbook was real estate, then Casey Abrams has gone and bought himself a nice little parcel of land. Thirteen American Ghosts? More like Thirteen New American Standards.

Check out www.caseyabrams.com for details on how to purchase this exciting release.