IT is fashionable to dismiss New England singer-songwriter Stephen Kellogg as a Bruce Springsteen or Steve Earle-lite musician.

That is lazy journalism. Kellogg, whose thoughtful lyrics and lilting melodies make Blunderstone Rookery one of the country rock albums of the year, is a poet and minstrel in the mould of the early Kris Kristofferson and the criminally-underrated Steve Forbert.

This excellent album, combining personal experiences and universal truths kicks off with the deceptively unassuming Lost And Found before launching into The Brain Is A Beautiful Thing, a state-of-the-nation address, replete with crashing guitars and soaring sax.

The desperately sad Ingrid’s Song, about the loss of a parent, moves the emotional intensity up a few notches, while I Don’t Want To Die On The Road allows Kellogg to name-check his heroes, including Jackson Browne and Levon Helm.

But it is on the ten-minute epic Thanksgiving, an agonisingly beautiful and haunting reflection on a life lived hard and fast, that Stephen Kellogg transcends any influences and creates wondrous music which is unmistakably, and triumphantly, his own.