Dropping the Colonel from his name and stepping away from the Legendary Shack Shakers, J.D. Wilkes indulges in his American gothic fantasies on his debut solo album, Fire Dream. Hiring an all-star Americana cast featuring members of the Drive-By Truckers and the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Wilkes conjures ghosts of old medicine shows and carny barkers with his husky howl and old-timey folk-blues. He roots Fire Dream in the music and imagery of his native Kentucky, but he doesn't play things straight: his is a heightened reality, where the backwoods, hoboes, and moonshine achieve a mythic status. Appropriately, Fire Dream can often feel carnivalesque in its swirling pianos and banjos, sometimes recalling a Southern Tom Waits, but Wilkes never seems like he's mimicking another musician and even if it's proudly arty, Fire Dream never comes across as pretentious. It's a knowing, melodramatic Southern fantasia, where the pleasure comes from how every element -- from the lyrics through the performances -- is exaggerated, turning this into fetchingly surreal Americana.