David Olney - Real Lies (1997/2019)

On the cover to this release, Olney looks haggard and careworn, a man who's put in many miles and had them all written into his face. The songs, on the other hand, are far from careworn, though the themes may be familiar. There's a nicely electric energy to many of the numbers here, however, with Olney's lyrics having a bittersweet edge that verges on cynicism without taking the plunge into complete hopelessness. Not a bad feat when you consider that those songs cover loss, grief, anger, anguish, the killing of Jesse James, the alcoholic twilight of John Barrymore and the murder of a call girl in Hollywood.