Tom Devaney was a Boston indie guitar-rocker in Betwixt (with Gordon Withers, who released an LP of Jawbox covers on cello), Jack Frosting, and Shimmy Disc's Bulkhead. This decade he's a reinvented Queens good guy making his "solo" debut. Having been produced by Kramer 13 prior, here he hooks up with the equally estimable Tony Maimone of Pere Ubu for production and bass. And though old bandmates keyboardist J. Johnson and drummer Chris Weinberg reappear (bussing from Beantown to Brooklyn for Maimone's sessions), Devaney plays appealing oddball acoustic folk-pop with accents of 80-year-old Americana country and blues. He cites Mississippi John Hurt, Ray Davies, Syd Barrett, and Love as loves, but this writer's thinking Leadbelly, Charlie Patton, and Skip James joining the Band for Meat Puppets covers. Devaney's thin, reedy voice fits his weirdo roots music, though one Western instrumental "Circuitous Goldstein" (like "Ghost Riders Meets the Sky" meets "Me and My Uncle"), and a more straightforward pop-tune, "Manager in Here," are standouts. ~ Jack Rabid