Produced by the Grammy winner Don Was in a recession-efficient two days -- "there's no bread to dilly-dally anymore," Mr. Was said -- Mr. Snider's ninth studio record marks a relatively calm patch in a volatile career and should finally help secure his place alongside peers like Steve Earle as one of music's great populist, if not popular, singer-songwriters. "A lot of this record is about how poor people sometimes cope with pain and hardship," Mr. Snider said. "A little drugs here, a little sex here, a little denial there."

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Corpus Christi Bay